PLANTING VINES. . 19 
road, and beyond that nothing but a poor, half-kept 
grass lawn fifty or sixty feet wide; yet more healthy 
ani vigorous vines, bearing as fine fruit as can be 
wished for, cannot be found. They are free from mil- 
dew or any kind of disease, notwithstanding a most 
unfavourable season. I attribute all this, not to a richly 
prepared border, but to the influence of the sun upon the 
roots lying under the gravel road immediately in front 
of the vinery, thus preserving a healthy and sound 
fibre ; and it is impossible to come to any other con- 
clusion. 
Now I think it will be evident that what is wanted 
before planting vines, is a good preparation on a broad 
scale. From my own experience I do not find a deep 
and superabundantly rich fatty matter confined to a 
limited space answer best; but that the ground for an 
unlimited space should be made good by manuring it 
well with cow-dung (not horse-dung, for that will 
generate fungi of various kinds according to what the 
natural soil is composed of), a good proportion of it, with 
some bones broken up and well mixed with the soil 
for a foot deep. This should cover a space well ex- 
posed to the sun; and this space, be it what it may, 
should not be shaded by trees or shrubs. Grass lawne 
will not much prevent the sunshine, and I am fully 
convinced that a gravel drive m front of a vinery is 
not an impediment to the suecess of vines, but, on the 
contrary, beneficial, because gravel wards off the wet 
and attracts the rays of the sun in a manner altogether 
different from mere garden soil. 
If such a method is employed in connection with 
the ramifying roots of vines after the soil has been pre- 
pared according to the above directions, and the gravel 
c 2 
