274 



ON GRAPE VINE BORDERS. 



evaporating and warming surface would be 

 exactly doubled. Considering how impor- 

 tant an agent bottom heat is known to be 

 by every gardener, it is remarkable that 

 temperature as affecting the roots of plants 

 in open borders is so little regarded. One 

 of the closing paragraphs of the instructive 

 Diary, furnished by Mr. Johnson, of Lynn, 

 and published in your volume, on fruit, 

 says : " To insure a good crop of grapes, 

 we are satisfied that they must have plenty 

 of heat, plenty of air, plenty of moisture, 

 severe thinning of the branches, severe 

 thinning of the berries." A proper tem- 

 perature at the roots might have been ad- 

 ded. When success has been attained, a 

 due degree of heat has been afforded to the 

 roots by means designed for other objects. 

 Until we know the temperature which the 

 roots of a plant most delight in. we do not 

 know, theoretically at least, the true method 

 of cultivating it in the highest perfection. 



As to depth, there is no limit to the de- 

 gree of it at which the roots of plants may 

 not thrive, save that of drainage and suita- 

 ble temperature. The roots of the willow 

 go to the surface of deep wells. The vine 

 sends its roots by the side of deep sinks 

 and cess-pools. 



Astoria, 24*A October, 1849. 



P. S. — I have written a long letter ; my 

 only object when I sat down was to ask 

 you where I might find minute practical 

 directions for the hybridizing of vines, our 

 native with the foreign, for example. 



Remarks. Our esteemed correspondent's 

 remarks on vine borders are highly inter- 

 esting, but he is somewhat led astray by 

 foreign writers on this subject. 



Mr. Hoare's excellent work on the vine 

 is intended for a climate as different from 

 that of the United States, as a dry sponge 

 is from a wet one. The great practical 

 difficulty with the soil in English garden- 

 ing is, to make it fertile and yet dry — for 

 numberless evils grow out of the accumu- 

 lation of water in deep soil, in a climate 

 where the sun is not powerful enough to 

 drink up the excess of moisture, or to fully 

 ripen the wood of trees or plants from a 

 more southern temperature. 



Here, it is quite the contrary. The sun 

 is so powerful that a grape border of the 

 usual width, only 18 inches deep would soon 

 cease to supply sufficient moisture to grow 

 the finest grapes. The best proof of this 

 is, the fact that at Clinton Point even, with 

 border 3 feet deep, it is found necessary to 

 water the border frequently in mid-sum- 

 mer — lest the vines should suffer for the 

 want of moisture. 



Wherever the sub-soil is not sand or 

 gravel so as to afford natural drainage, there 

 Dr. Stevens' plan of thorough draining 

 the borders artificially, is the correct one. 

 But we think every practical grape grower, 

 in this climate, who succeeds in getting 

 large crops of very fine fruit, will agree 

 that deep and rich borders are indispensi- 

 ble, and that Mr. Hoare's system in this 

 respect naturally fails in America. 



We find, on examining the admirable 

 meteorological table of the temperature of 

 the soil at Albany, given by Mr. Salis- 

 bury, in the State Agricultural Report for 

 last year, that the maximum temperature 

 of the soil 4 feet deep, there is in the month 

 of August. Ed. 



