54 On the Formation of Vine Borders. 



the soil loose. Dung may be used, he says, but then you are 

 to mix it with shells and broken pebbles, the object of which is 

 to secure the constant openness of the soil. 



" On the other hand, Chaptal, the best French writer on the 

 Vine, discourages the use of manure. 



" ' The same reasons,' he says, ' may be used against the 

 system of the Vine-growers of the north, who think it advan- 

 tageous to manure their Vines. By this means, indeed, they 

 obtain larger crops, and more wine, but it is of bad quality, 

 it will not keep ; and its smell often ?e7?iifids one, when drank, 

 of the disgusting substaiices lohich produced it. Manure com- 

 municates to the Vine too much nourishment. The nutritious 

 juice, reduced to gas, and received by the mouths of the capil- 

 lary roots, and by the air-vessels of the leaves, penetrates and 

 circulates in the sap-vessels, forms the wood of the plant, and 

 furnishes the substance out of which the shoots, leavos, flow- 

 ers, and fruit are developed ; the more abundant the nutritive 

 matter, the more the diameter of the vessels distends, the 

 more rapid is the circulation ot the sap, because the chan- 

 nels through which it passes have more capacity. This 

 causes the sap to circulate in a less state of elaboration, the 

 result of which must be, that the wine is flat, insipid, and 

 destitute of all the principles of alcohol. Nevertheless, the 

 abundant crop thus obtained, and the brilUaiit vegetation, are, 

 after all, in some measure deceptive, for they can be but tran- 

 sitory. In Vineyards where manuring is practised, they 

 only manure once in ten years. It is not to be doubted, that 

 the effect is very remarkable the first three or four years after 

 the manuring of the Vines, but, in the succeeding years, the 

 plants begin to languish; no longer finding that abundance 

 of nourishment to which they have been accustomed, they 

 suffer in consequence, and often fall victims to the want of it. 

 Thus a part of the plants are lost, either by too much or too 

 little nourishment. But Vines can receive, and it is often ad- 

 vantageous to give them, such manure as will make good the 

 poverty of the soil, its exhaustion, or what is required other- 

 wise for this sort of cultivation. No manure suits Vines bet- 

 ter than what is properly called vegetable earth, obtained by 

 the decomposition of plants Mosses, leaves, and turf, mixed 

 together, thrown up in great heaps, and left for about two 



