50 On the FWmation of Vine Borders. 



shall merely state that, whatever practice we recommend, we 

 invariably adopt, until experience assures us that it is found- 

 ed in error. 



The subject of the preparation of vine borders has recently 

 attracted considerable attention in England, and various com- 

 munications have appeared, in some of the gardening period- 

 icals, in relation to the practice of using the carcasses of dead 

 animals. This discussion has taken place in consequence of 

 the publication of a small, but excellent little work, of only 

 eighty or ninety pages, upon the culture of the grape, by Mr. 

 Roberts, a very successful cultivator. Probably, few copies 

 of the volume have ever found their way here, in consequence 

 of the high price at which it was published. We, however, 

 received a copy when it first appeared, and read it with much 

 interest, and came to the same conclusion as Dr. Lindley, 

 whose article wc are about to notice, that it was one of the 

 most thorough, practical, and common-sense treatises which 

 we had ever read, and, saving its recommendation of the 

 ''pabulum" of dead animals, to produce the "nectar of Bac- 

 chus," was just what every cultivator of the grape was in 

 need of We had intended to have prepared a Review of it, 

 but other matters pressed upon us, and it was, for the time, 

 forgotten. 



The preparation of our article in our last volume brought 

 the subject up anew, and it was in reference to Mr. Roberts's 

 views that we made the remark before quoted. Subsequently 

 to the publication of our paper, and unknown to us at the 

 time we wrote, appeared Mr. Allen's pamphlet on the culture 

 of the grape, in which he advises the use of carcasses of dead 

 animals, if they can be had, to such an extent as to cover the 

 bottom of the border. In our Review of this work, (XIII. 

 p. 4U9,) we incidentally stated our objection to this practice, 

 believing it to be of no use, but rather injurious to the future 

 health of the vines. 



Since that time, the discussion of this question has principally 

 taken place, and, to show that our views are the same as those 

 entertained by experienced cultivators, as well as scientific 

 writers, abroad, -vvc have quoted the following article from 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle for December last, to which we ask 

 especial attention : — 



