iSyi.] GRAPES. 297 



rainfall heavy too, then certainly the fact is contrary to much-expressed 

 opinion, and should be of import to all interested in Vine-culture. 



It is a generally recognised fact that Vines in full growth and bear- 

 ing have a great capacity for water, and unless it be stagnant about 

 their roots, that they are not easily injured with a supply of it. Efforts 

 have been pushed to the extreme in the other direction, as many are 

 aware, with results by no means satisfactory. In the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, under the superintendence of Mr Hoare and Dr Lindley, 

 pillars were built and stuffed with lime- rubbish, flints, and bones, and 

 Vines planted in them. The effects were such as every practical horti- 

 culturist would have predicted — the Vines were simply " roasted alive." 

 Of course such an extreme every sensible horticulturist would avoid, 

 just the same as they would fly the other extreme of planting a Vine 

 in a puddle, making it semi-aquatic. But that the Vine has an im- 

 mense capacity for water is well known to all who have cultivated 

 Vines, especially Vines in pots. Let a Vine growing in a 12-inch pot 

 be 6 to 8 feet long, bearing, say, ten bunches of Grapes, have its 

 foliage exposed to a clear summer sun with more or less of a current 

 of air playing about it, and it may be asked what other plant will take 

 up and make proper use of so much water with its roots'? or what 

 plant v/ill sooner show in many ways unmistakable symptoms of dis- 

 tress and disaster if in this respect it be neglected for a few hours. 

 At the same time, a Vine will suffer with equal severity if more water 

 is supplied to it than it can take up ; that is, if water is allowed to 

 stand about its roots. 



There can be no objections to elevated and thoroughly-drained bor- 

 ders, for a great portion of the year they cannot be otherwise than 

 safe. That they are without their evils we are not prepared to admit. 

 Proof of this need not be sought for afar. We have only to look at 

 such borders as are frequently met with in the heat and drought of 

 summer in very dry districts, inadequately supplied with water by arti- 

 ficial means, and the evils attendant on such conditions are so obvious 

 that it does not need much A^ine lore to point them out. Just at the 

 very time when the Vine is carrying on its tug of war, its commissariat 

 runs short, and its whole structure and constitution suffers in conse- 

 quence — the immediate result being an attack in front and flank by 

 red-spider, shrivelled and shanked berries; and if this were all, it would 

 not be so bad, but the Vine is left to enter on the campaign of next 

 year in an enervated condition, so forcibly termed once in these pages 

 " vegetable leanness " by our able coadjutor " The Squire's Gardener." 

 The Vine is, in fact, placed on short rations when it ought to be in cir- 

 cumstances the very reverse. Hence the reason, we apprehend, why 

 Vines growing in districts where long steady droughts are less frequent 



