THE 



GARDENER. 



AUGUST 1881, 



FEEDING VIITES, &c. 



ANY years ago the practice of mixing considerable pro- 

 portions of manure in the form of animal excrement, and 

 in some cases animals themselves, into Vine-borders, was 

 very common, and recommended as the right thing to do ; 

 but it proved, especially when carried to anything like 

 excess, most unsatisfactory in its results. By such liberal proportions 

 of rank manure no doubt a strong growth was attained ; but it was 

 of such a plethoric kind, that the agents necessary for perfecting 

 and consolidating it could not be commanded, and disappointment in 

 the character of the Grapes followed as a necessary consequence. The 

 Vines were certainly not starved, but were, for a time at least, overfed. 

 It is not now considered right or necessary to mix in such manures with 

 the soil used for making up Vine-borders ; and though this change must 

 be considered sounder both in theory and practice, there is a danger that 

 Vines may suffer from the opposite extreme of being ultimately starved. 

 It is because we are satisfied that many Vines are suffering from want 

 of feeding that we refer to the matter. In the fresh organic matter 

 common to turf from old pastures, of which Vine-borders are generally 

 composed, there are for several years all the elements of nutrition needed 

 to produce strong enough Vines and good Grapes. But notwithstand 

 ing the mixing in of the orthodox proportion of bones and sometimes 

 horn-shavings, in the course of years, and especially after the border is 

 completed in width and when the Vines are in bearing from bottom 

 to top, something additional and very substantial is required, in the 

 case of such borders, to enable the Vines year after year to bear the 

 strain of heavy crops of good Grapes, and at the same time not decline 



z 



