ON THE FORMATION OF VINE BORDERS. 



BY JAMES STEWART, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



This subject has been so frequently and 

 freely discussed, during the last few years, 

 that any remarks I may make on the sub- 

 ject may be deemed superfluous. How- 

 ever, I will venture to give my views, rela- 

 tive to the construction of vine borders, and 

 the best materials to be employed, — being 

 the experience of many years, and in some 

 of the most extensive establishments ex- 

 tant. 



Some vine cultivators strongly insist upon 

 the use of dead animals in vine borders, 

 as the principal ingredient therein, and one 

 necessary for the vine to produce its fruit 

 in perfection. But I have frequently seen 

 the ill effects of their use, particularly when 

 introduced into borders that were planted 

 two or three years previously. Although 

 the vine is a gross feeder, still pure and 

 well decomposed substances are necessary 

 for its welfare. Nothing can be more per- 

 nicious, than to introduce a mass of putrid 

 and decaying animal bodies, for the roots 

 to extend their different ramifications in. 

 In borders that have had dead bodies de- 

 posited in them, when made at the distance 

 of 15 or 20 feet from where the vines are 

 planted, so that they might become decom- 

 posed before the roots reached them, I 

 never have been able to discover any su- 

 periority of the fruit, produced from such 

 borders, over that of other borders, where 

 nothing but soil was used, and their pre- 

 sence dispensed with. I also regard the 

 system of making such large borders, in 

 some instances fifty feet in width, to be a 

 great error; although I may be told that 

 additions at suitable periods, to encourage 

 the roots, are not only beneficial but highly 



necessary to produce good grapes. Such, 

 however, is not the fact, although at every 

 extension of the border fine young root- 

 lets will be found ; but what will be the 

 state of the roots in the immediate vicinity 

 of the house where the vine is planted ? 

 Examine, and you will not find any of 

 those young rootlets there, but large, thick, 

 black roots, totally destitute of young fibres ; 

 and the further the vine border is extended, 

 the further will the ill effects of it be per- 

 ceived. In these large, diffused vine bor- 

 ders, when top-dressings of rich manure 

 are applied, (Liquid manures, also,) what 

 guide has the cultivator to go by ? He 

 cannot determine at what particular locality 

 the food for the vine is most required ; and 

 it is certain that those large black roots 

 cannot assimilate, and take up food for the 

 use of the vine, — (the small rootlets and 

 fibres performing that office.) The use of 

 the richest manures cannot be of any es- 

 sential service to them ; consequently, it 

 involves a waste of labor, manure, *and 

 land also. I am decidedly of opinion that 

 a border ten feet in width, containing a 

 depth of soil of about two and a half feet, 

 are superior to one of fifty feet, and is ca- 

 pable of furnishing the rafters of any vinery 

 that may be erected. My reasons for so 

 thinking are the following, viz : that in 

 largely extended borders, you cannot deter- 

 mine where the stimulants are most want- 

 ed ; and if applied all over the border, only 

 a small portion of the roots are benefitted. 

 "Whereas, if the vines occupied a border of 

 only ten feet in width, the whole of the 

 roots would be concentrated in that space ; 

 and whatever stimulants were applied would 



