cing any thing else. It is a
species of gambling, and of desperate gambling too, wherein, whether you
make much or nothing, you are equally ruined. The middling crop alone is
the saving point, and that the seasons seldom hit. Accordingly, we see
much wretchedness among this class of cultivators. Wine, too, is so
cheap in these countries, that a laborer with us, employed in the
culture of any other article, may exchange it for wine, more and better
than he could raise himself. It is a resource for a country, the whole
of whose good soil is otherwise employed, and which still has some
barren spots, and a surplus of population to employ on them. There the
vine is good, because it is something in the place of nothing. It may
become a resource to us at a still earlier period: when the increase of
population shall increase our productions beyond the demand for them,
both at home and abroad. Instead of going on to make an useless surplus
of them, we may employ our supernumerary hands on the vine. But that
period is not yet arrived.

The almond tree is also so precarious, that none can depend for
subsistence on its produce, but persons of capital.

The caper, though a more tender plant, is more certain in its produce,
because a mound of earth of the size of a cucumber hill, thrown over the
plant in the fall, protects it effectually against the cold of winter.
When the danger of frost is over in the spring, they uncover it, and
begin its culture. There is a great deal of this in the neighborhood of
Toulon. The plants are set about eight feet apart, and yield, one year
with another, about two pounds of caper each, worth on the spot six
pence sterling the pound. They require little culture, and this may
be performed either with the plough or hoe. The principal work is the
gathering of the fruit as it forms. Every plant must be picked every
other day, from the last of June till the middle of October. But this is
the work of women and children. This plant does well in any kind of soil
which is dry, or even in walls where there is no soil, and it lasts the
life of a man. Toulon would be the proper port to apply for them. I must
observe, that the preceding details cannot be relied on with the fullest
certainty, because, in the canton where this plant is cultivated, the
inhabitants speak no written language, but a medley, which I could
understand but very imperfectly.

The fig and mulberry are so well known in America, that nothing n