AMERICAN WILD VINE, 137 



vine," said he, "is a delicate, tender, and weak thing, and can by no means 

 bear with hard usage; and, for the most part, it is consumed by too much 

 labour, and bearing too great a quantity of fruit; and, if you do not restrain it 

 within due bounds, it perishes by its own fruitfulness. But when it has, in 

 some measure, strengthened and hardened itself, and attained, as it were, to the 

 vigour of youth, it may prosper under neglect. But a young vineyard, while it 

 is growing up, unless it receives due care and attention, will be reduced to the 

 poorest and most starving condition, and will pine and waste away, in such a 

 manner, that it can never afterwards, by any experience whatsoever, be recovered 

 and restored. Therefore, the foundations, as it were, must be laid with th^ 

 greatest care, and from the first day of planting, it must be managed like infants, 

 with unceasing attention, which, unless we do, all our expenses will be laid out 

 to no purpose ; nor can the proper season of anything be recalled, when once 

 we let it pass." First, then, let us select a proper site of ground, and proceed at 

 once, and trench it to the full depth required. If it be situated on a plain, or in 

 a valley, it should be dug two feet in depth, and on rising ground three ; but on 

 a hill-side, somewhat steeper, it should be turned up at least four feet, in 

 order that the roots may penetrate beyond the reach of drought. If the cut- 

 tings are intended to be planted in drills or rows, let there be formed trenches 

 three feet in length, two feet in depth, and the width of a spade, leaving inter- 

 vals or baulks, a yard in length, between the trenches, till the row is finished. 

 Then, with good virgin soil, if it be at hand, if not, let it be procured from the 

 woods, let us fill the trenches therewith, mixing it at the same time with a due 

 proportion of leaf-mould or well-rotted manure, or what is still better, the leaves 

 and husks of vines, or grape-seeds, =^ in order to quicken and strengthen the 

 growth of the plants. If a vineyard be the object which we have in view, let 

 the rows or drills be trenched from five to ten feet asunder, according to the sur- 

 face of the ground and the latitude of the place. If the situation be on a plain, 

 in a high degree of latitude, the rows should be eight or ten feet apart ; but if it 

 be on the side of a very steep hill, or in a low degree of latitude, five feet will 

 be sufficient ; and on moderately inclined surfaces, or in higher latitudes, six or 

 eight feet apart will be all that is required. With regard to the direction of the 



* This method of manuring vines was known and practised by the Carthaginians long before they 

 were conquered by the Romans. One Mago, reputed among tlie classical ancients for the princely 

 employment of delivering precepts concerning the tilling of the earth, who flourished more than two hun- 

 dred years B. C, and wrote twenty-eight books on husbandry, proved that the husks of grapes and grape- 

 seeds, mixed with dung, and put into the trenches with the vine-plants, quickened their growth, strength- 

 ened the stems, and drew forth new roots. This idea accords precisely with the most enlightened princi- 

 ples of modern chemistry and vegetable economy. It shows that a vineyard may be made to maintain 

 perfect fruitfulness without the application of any manure, except the leaves and branches that are pruned 

 from the vines. Indeed, an instance is recorded, where a man, in Germany, had a vineyard which he 

 manured by no other means, and kept it in a thriving condition for thirty years. His mode of applying 

 the vine-leaves and branches, was to hoe them into the soil after having cut ihcm into small pieces. 

 During this long period, no carbon was conveyed to the soil nor to the vines themselves, except that 

 contained in their pruned branches, the rains, dews, and in the atmosphere, so that the vines were placed 

 in exactly the same condition as' trees in a forest, which receive no manure except from their decayed 

 Branches and leaves. Under ordinary circumstances, a manure containing potash must be used, other- 

 wise the fertility of the soil will decrease. From this it follows, that in nature every vegetable produces 

 its own pabulum or support, and that the earth only serves to bear the plant, and not to aid or nourish it 

 in vegetation. The food of plants is thus supposed to be derived from air and water, heat and light, or 

 electricity in different proportions, adapted to the various productions of the vegetable world. This doc- 

 trine may further be corroborated by an instance which occurred in France in 1840. Messrs. Poillard 

 and Bernard, who date their letter at Brest, assert that they succeeded in raising perfect wheat upon a 

 pane of glass covered with straw. They state that there was not the smallest particle of earth upon the 

 glass, and that the plants were left entirely to themselves, without being watered or attended to in any 

 way whatever, from the time of sowing to the lime of reaping. And we can aver that we have seen 

 fields of sugar-cane, in the island of Cuba, which have produced abundant crops from the same roots, for 

 nearly a quarter of a century, without any manure, except the tops and leaves of the cane that have been 

 left on the ground, and worked into the soil by the hoe. 



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