OF THE CRIMEA.

43*

and in the preparation of vinegar; or the grapes might be dried,and thus fweetened in ovens.

Although the fituation of the high grounds, near the Sea ofAzof, appears to be favourable, yet thefe are not propitious tothe culture of the vine, being too much expofed to cold windsand fogs; befides, they are too dry, and the low grounds aretoo moift, and impregnated with faline particles. In the vicinityof fens and forefts, the night-frofts occurring in the monthof May frequently prove detrimental to the blofToms.

Vines are ftill reared as far as Baturin, nay even in Glukhov jbut they feldom bear fruit, unlefs in well-fheltered fpots, be-caufe the vernal night-frofts injure their blofToms, as well asthofe of peaches and apricots, fo that the grapes feldom attainto maturity. Such is likewife the cafe on the line of theUkraine, and even in the neighbourhood of the monaftery ofSvätogorfki, which is fituated nearly forty verfts in a morefoutherly direcYion than the line on the banks of the Donetz.On the whole, it appears that throughout the Ukraine, whichlies to the North of the laft-mentioned line, the culture of thevine cannot be introduced with advantage. It would, however,be erroneous to judge in this cafe from the provinces of Ger-many fituated in a fimilar latitude; as the temperature of theRuffian Governments greatly difFers from that of the former.Thus, at Tor and Bakhmut, night-frofts occur in the middle ofAuguft, nay, fometimes as early as the I2th of that month, fo asto caufe buck-wheat, the Solanum, and Stramonium, to wither.The mulberry-tree refifts the frofts in a far more northerlyregion, as is evinced by the uncommonly beautiful plantationbelonging to the Crown at Beleffkaya-Krepoft, and containing

nearly