PLANTING VINES. 19 



road, and beyond that nothing but a poor, half-kept 

 grass lawn fifty or sixty feet wide ; yet more healthy 

 and 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 lawns 

 will not much prevent the sunshine, and I am fully 

 convinced that a gravel drive in front of a vinery is 

 not an impediment to the success 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 



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