The cultivation of the grape and the making of wine are of the most remote antiq uity. as appears from the Scripture history of Noah, and from many passages of the most ancient authors. The mythological fable of the marches of Bacchus relates to the extension of the culture of the vine from Asia into Europe. The earliest accounts we have of the manner of cultivating the vine are by the Roman authors Virgil and Col umella. The vine was probably introduced into the s. of France as early as into Italy; it is said to have been brought to Marseilles by the Phomans, about 600 B.C., and its cul tivation was early co-extensive with civilization in all the countries near the Mediterra nean. In Italy, so much of the land was occupied by vineyards, that the emperorDomi thin, fearing a scarcity of corn, issued ue... a restrictive or prohibitory edict 81 A.D., which was afterward long continued in force, through fear that the abundance of fine wine might tempt the barbarians of the 11. to invade the country. .The vine was introduced into the s. of Germany about the 3d c. B.c. Augustus preferred the Rhaetian wine Wall other_ The first vineyards on the Rhine and Moselle were planted by the emperor Probus in 281 A.D. Under the Merovingians. the culture of the vine extended greatly both in France and Germany. Charlemagne derived a very considerable revenue from the vineyards even of the northern parts of his empire. The Huns who remained in a number of set tlements on the Rhine, after the expedition of Attila into Gaul, 951 A.D., brought thith er the arts of cultivating the grape, and of making wine, from Pannonia; and Hunnish grapes and Hunnish wine were long in particular repute. In the middle ages, the monks were the first to plant vineyards and to make wine in many parts of Europe.
The cultivation of the vine was introduced into England by the Romans. At the time of the Norman conquest, there scent to have been vineyards in the s. and s.w. of Eng land, and, although they afterward disappeared, successful attempts were occasionally made to re-establish them; and one at Arundel castle in Sussex yielded, about the mid dle of last century, large quantities of wine. Of late years, the cultivation of the vine has much increased in the s. of England, in gardens, on the walls of suburban villas and of cottages, but chiefly for the sake of the fresh fruit, although wine of pretty good quality is also made in small quantities for domestic use.
The vine does not, in ordinary seasons, ripen its fruit well in Great Britain further n. than Yorkshire, although grapes have occasionally ripened in the open air in Scotland. It is, however, a hardy plant, in so far as the endurance of severe winter-frosts is con cerned; but it requires for the ripening of its wood, as well as of its fruit, a considerable slimmer heat continued for several months. Thus, it does not succeed in parts of Brit ain in which the mean temperature of the year is higher than that of countries where good wine is made. A very moist climate is also unsuitable to it; and therefore it is not extensively cultivated in the n.w. of France, although there are many productive vineyards in the n.e. In the most northern regions to which its cultivation extends, the vine is protected in various ways during winter; in some places, by laying down its branches, and covering them with some depth of earth. It produces abundant fruit in
warm climates, such as India, but the juice passes too rapidly into acetous fermentation to be used for making Wine, although in many of the mountainous districts of India it might probably be cultivated for this purpose with success. Shiraz, in Persia, is one of the warmest climates the production of good wine.
In Europe, the cultivation of the vine forms an important branch of rural economy as far n. as Coblenz on the Rhine; but in some countries, particularly in Greece and the Ionian islands, raisins form the chief part of the produce of the vineyards.
The cultiVation of the vine was early introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese into the Azores, the Madeira and Canary isles, and America. The first vines were carried to the cape of Good Hope by the Dutch in 1650; but while the wines of Madeira and those of the limited district of Constantia at the cape of Good Hope have long enjoyed a high celebrity, and those of Canary and Teneriffe have been imported in considerable quantities into Europe, it is only of late that much attention has begun to be paid to the cultivation of the grape in the other parts of Cape Colony, or in any part of America. It is now, however, prosecuted with some energy in Ohio, Missouri, and some other states of North America, and very good wines are produced. It has also been introduced into Australia, where good wines are made, although not yet to a large extent.
The cultivation of the vine varies much in different countries. Success seems chiefly to depend on a good sunny exposure, liberal hut not coarse manuring, and constant at tention. New varieties are raised from seed, but the ordinary modes of propagation are by layers and cuttings. Fine varieties are sometimes budded or grafted on less valuable ones. In the vineries of Britain, the vines are carefully trained, in various ways, so as most completely to cover the walls and trellises, and to turn the whole available space to the utmost account; while superfluous shoots are displaced by pruning, so that the strength of the plant may be directed to the fruit-bearing branches, and that there may be no undue luxuriance of foliage to prevent sufficient access of light and air. The lux uriant growth of the plant renders the frequent application of the pruningknife neces• sary during summer. The fruit being produced on shoots of the current year, the pruning is managed with a view to the abundance of these shoots, the greater part of which, when they have served their purpose, are cut away, such only being left as are required for the extension of the space profitably occupied by the plant. The bunches of grapes are also generally thinned out with great care, in order that finer fruit may be produced. By such means, and the aid of artificial heat, grapes are produced equal to those of the most favored climates, and the vine attains to a large size and a great age. • The fatuous vine at Hampton court has a stein more than a foot in circumference, one branch measuring 114 ft. in length, and has produced in one season 2,200 bunches of grapes, weighing on an average one pound each, or in all nearly a toil.