28 THE BOOK OF THE GRAPE 



from the same pier-supported plank, and in which houses 

 the same atmospheric temperature prevails throughout. 

 The glass-covered space in each house was simply dug 

 or trenched from eighteen inches to twenty-four inches 

 deep, liberal dressings of short manure being incorporated 

 with the soil in the process. Into this, in some cases 

 pebbly, soil the vines were planted, and heavier crops 

 of fine grapes (including Muscat of Alexandria) I never 

 saw on vines growing in the most elaborately made 

 borders. With such evidence as this before my eyes, is 

 it any wonder that in this work I hesitate to advocate an 

 unnecessary expenditure in the making of vine borders 

 except in the case of unsuitable soil or nearness to water ? 

 Heretofore many people were deterred from attempting 

 to grow their own grapes by reason of the expenditure 

 which the formation and composition of the vine border 

 on the lines recommended at the time, as being in- 

 dispensable to the production of even moderate grapes, 

 would incur. A perusal of this work will, I trust, 

 remove this very erroneous impression, and at the same 

 time show how very easy and simple a subject the grape 

 vine is to manage. Should it be found necessary to 

 bottom the border inside a span vinery when the roots 

 are confined therein, the base of such border should 

 slope slightly from both sides to the middle, where the 

 gutter-bricks should be placed as described above. 



Where new borders are necessary, they should be 

 made in sections to begin with. In the case of a 

 " lean-to ' vinery wherein the vines are planted three 

 feet apart in the two feet wide inside border, a breadth 

 of three feet outside will afford ample scope for the 

 roots for the first year, keeping the soil in position by 

 means of a turf wall, completing the width of the border 

 during the two following years. In forming the borders 

 in a twenty feet wide span, make them in sections five 

 feet wide each side in the first year, completing the 



