212 OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTURE. 



of charcoal, burnt clay, coal ashes, or other absor- 

 bent on top of it, and allow it to lie for a few weeks. 

 At the end of that time, a mass of matter will have 

 been produced almost equal to guano. 



Road scrapings form a good top dressing for most 

 soils. Hoare considers them unrivalled for the grape 

 vine, and such was the opinion of Speedily, who tells 

 us: "The dust, or dirt, from roads, consists princi- 

 pally of the following particulars : first, the soil of 

 the vicinity ; secondly, the dung and urine of horses 

 and other animals; and thirdly, the materials of the 

 road itself when pulverized. Various other matters 

 may be brought by winds, and by other means, but 

 the foregoing may be deemed the principal. The 

 first of the above articles is brought to roads by the 

 wheels of carriages, and the legs of horses and other 

 animals ; the last is the worst part of the materials, 

 as the dust and scrapings of roads, made and mended 

 with soft stone that grinds fast away, is much infe- 

 rior in its vegetating quality to that which is collected 

 from hard roads. On the whole, however, this in- 

 gredient of compost from the roads is unquestionably 

 in general of a fertile nature, which may be attri- 

 buted in part to the dung, urine, and other rich ma- 

 terials, of which it is composed, and in part to a kind 

 of magnetic power, impressed upon it by friction and 

 its perpetual pulverization. 



