A NOTE ON VINE BORDERS. 



BV R. L. COLT, PATEftSON, N J 



Dear Sir — I have read with great atten- 

 tion Dr. Stevens' communication in your 

 December number on vine borders, and I 

 agree with you, that with our warm and 

 penetrating sun, the borders recommended 

 by Mr. Hoare, for England, will not an- 

 swer for our country; and, therefore, I do 

 not think the shallow borders Dr. Stevens 

 recommends will answer with us. 



I tried, two years ago, a small house on 

 Hoare's plan, 20 feet long, 12 feet wide, 

 with 10 feet back wall, covered with glass, 

 and heated with a flue ; it was dug out, as 

 a pit, 3 feet deep, enclosed with a dry stone 

 wall, and filled with the materials, as or- 

 dered by Mr. Hoare. I then planted my 

 vines inside. This is, in truth, Dr. Ste- 

 vens' pot system. This did well, but not 

 so well as we expected ; not so well as 

 vines, of the same kinds, planted in out- 

 side borders. They were watered from 

 time to time with pond water, and occa- 

 sionally with whale oil soap-suds, with an 

 addition of potashes — the best manure for 

 grapes. This fall my gardener not being 

 satisfied with the growth of the vines, 

 asked permission to open an outside border. 

 We did so, in a trench two feet deep by 

 five feet wide, and found the roots of these 

 inside vines had extended through the 

 crevices of the stone wall, beyond the 

 five feet, — showing plainly, though but of 

 two year's growth, that Hoare's compost 

 was not all the vines wanted. 



We are now making an outside border 

 to this house, five feet wide, sunk two feet 

 below the natural surface of the ground — 

 such as does not require a drain. We fill 

 in one foot with oyster shells, old broken 

 bricks, old mortar, &c; then a slight cover- 

 ing with broken charcoal ; then one foot of 



a mixture of old leather, old woolen rags, 

 some lime, some wood ashes, some broken 

 bones, some slaughterhouse manure, — all 

 well mixed, and covered with a half inch 

 plaster of paris and coal dust; then six 

 inches of a rich compost of bone dust, (the 

 bores dissolved with sulphuric acid,) old 

 marsh mud, night soil, and plaster of paris, 

 wo 1 ' mixed; then a foot of well decom- 

 [ 1 turf from an old pasture. In this 

 last Ave plant our vines, or allow those 

 within the house to extend outwards, 

 through openings we made in the walls of 

 the present house. Two years hence, we 

 will extend the border five feet wider, and 

 some depth of four feet, by putting dead 

 hcr;>es, bonc^, leather, &c. &c, with a due 

 proportion of lime, plaster and wood ashes — 

 the last not least. In this way, from time 

 to time, we widen our border ; for the grape 

 is a gross feeder. 



I wish you and Dr. Stevens would come 

 and inspect my vineries next summer. I 

 feel confident you would be pleased with 

 the results. 



I have no doubt that the doctor's plan 

 for giving air by air-ducts, through the bor- 

 ders, is a good one, and thank him for the 

 suggestion, which I will adopt in the bor- 

 ders I am now making. P. L. Colt. 



Paterson, N. J-, December 10, 1819. 



P. S. Past all question, the best grapes 

 I raised this year were Victor/a Black Ham- 

 burghs and Fontainbhau Chasselas, grown 

 under glass, without fire ; the vines planted 

 in the house, with access to an outside bor- 

 der ten feet wide, three feet deep — the in- 

 side border same depth. The grapes, for 

 colour, size and flavor, decidedly superior 

 to those cultivated with fire. I am now 

 making a cold vinery, of 230 feet by 14. 



