216 OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTURE. 



hydraulic cement, will answer larger establishments, 

 of course, requiring something more capacious. They 

 should be filled with chamber and kitchen slops and 

 soap suds, the latter being generally added warm. 

 On the large scale, when horse, cow, and other ma 

 nure can be obtained, it may be mixed with water and 

 added to the contents of the barrels. Hen manure 

 is one of the most valuable additions. Two barrels 

 should be used, so as constantly to have some of the 

 manure thoroughly decomposed. 



After standing for a week or ten days, it will be fit 

 for use, and may either be applied to the surface of 

 the border, or what is far better, introduced by means 

 of subterranean drains or channels. These may con 

 sist simply of long wooden boxes, bored full of small 

 holes and sunk about twelve inches beneath the 

 surface, or of common horse shoe tiles placed in a 

 similar position. Under any circumstances, it must 

 have a tube at one end rising up to the surface, 

 through which the liquid may be poured and which 

 may be closed on the approach of winter so as to 

 exclude frost. In very small gardens, it may prove 

 sufficient to sink one or two flower pots in the border. 

 These, being filled with the liquid manure, it will 

 soak down amongst the roots without the possibility 

 of loss by evaporation from the surface of the ground. 

 The pots should, of course, ordinarily be kept covered. 



