63 OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTURE. 



a pasture where the soil is a sandy loam ; one-fourth 

 of the sweepings and scrapings of pavements and hard 

 roads ; one-eighth of rotten cow and stahle yard dung 

 mixed ; and one-eighth of vegetable mold from re- 

 duced and decayed oak leaves. These are the several 

 and respective proportions. The sward should be 

 laid in a heap till the grass roots are in a state of 

 decay, and then turned over and broken with a spade ; 

 let it then be put to the other materials, and the 

 whole worked together, till the separate parts become 

 well and uniformly mixed and incorporated. 



As the vegetable mold from decayed leaves can- 

 not always be obtained, by reason that the leaves 

 require two years before they become sufficiently 

 putrid and reduced, it therefore may sometimes be 

 necessary to substitute some other ingredient in lieu 

 of this part of the compost ; wherefore it may not be 

 inexpedient to point out the proper succedanea. 



Rotten wood reduced to a fine mold, such as is 

 often found under fagot stacks ; the scraping of the 

 ground in old woods, where the trees grow thick 

 together; mold out of hollow trees, and sawdust 

 reduced to a fine mold, provided it be not from wood 

 of a resinous kind, are in part of a similar nature 

 with vegetable mold from decayed leaves, but are 

 neither so rich nor so powerful, because the vegetable 

 mold receives a power by its fermentation. 



