FORMATION OF VINE BORDERS, SOILS. 21 



Where such a soil can be procured, it should be cut from an open 

 pasture, not from a wood or near the roots of trees, lest pieces of 

 wood or of roots remain to decay and cause fungus. It should also be 

 cut while it is dry. Many soils are quite spoilt by being handled 

 whilst they are in a wet condition. Chop the turves with the grass- 

 and fibre roughly to pieces, and to five or six cubic yards of this 

 material add one yard of old lime rubbish or broken bricks, a portion 

 of charcoal, wood-ashes, or burnt soil, and about two hundred-weight 

 of half-inch dried ground bones. These ingredients, well mixed, will 

 constitute the main body of soil to be used, but is subject, of course, 

 to considerable modification as to proportions, according to the 

 quality of the loam that is made use of. If the loam used is of a 

 sandy nature, less of the lime rubbish must be used, as the object in 

 using this is mainly to give porosity to the soil. If, on the other 

 hand, it is of a clayey nature, a much greater proportion of lime 

 rubbish will be required. 



In many places it may be very difficult to obtain soil at all approach- 

 ing that which is here recommended, but let no one despair of 

 cultivating Grapes on that account. Vines will grow, and grow well, 

 in soils of a much inferior nature under careful management. We 

 recommend that which we consider the best, and it is for the culti- 

 vator to get some as near like it as possible. In our own experience 

 we have often had to use soils of a very inferior quality old and 

 exhausted garden soil, without a vestige of fibre in the formation 

 of Vine borders, trusting to the after-management, to top-dressings,, 

 and so forth, to make up for the deficiencies. In short, in choosing 

 soil for growing Vines, choose the newest and freshest that may be 

 obtainable, although, perchance, it may not be, or may not appear so 

 rich as some other that has been in cultivation ; yet it will be found 

 more enduring, and better suited in every respect, when the other 

 ingredients mentioned are added in their proper proportion, for the 

 production of Grapes and the general constitution of the Vine. 



Manures. For the growth of Vines nearly all soils require the 

 addition of some fertilising ingredients some kind of manure. The 

 character of soil most suitable for the Vine, and the mechanical 

 construction of the border being settled, the next point for 

 consideration is that of enriching the soil ; for where soils are 

 poor, the question of manures becomes an important matter. Not very 

 many years ago it was the popular belief and custom in the formation 

 of a Vine border to bury the carcases of animals such as horses, 

 cows, etc. in the border, under the mistaken idea that the roots 

 of the Vines revelled in such putrid matter ; a more stupid idea 

 never existed. At the present time very different notions prevail in 

 regard to manures, and also the making of Vine borders. Some of the 

 best cultivators now have their soils analysed with great care, and the 

 different ingredients, of which they may be found deficient, added 



