GRAPES. CULTIVATION, SOIL, ETC. 277 



mains which was thefe at the time he came. He never 

 uses animal manure ; he uses only the scrapings of roads 

 and ditches, and the parings of pasture, after it has lain in 

 the compost heap two years. When the fruit is fully grown, 

 instead of thinning the leaves which shade the fruit from 

 the sun, according to the common practice, which is so 

 injurious, he removes only the leaves between the grapes 

 and the wall, in order that the heat of the wall and the 

 sun's rays may be reflected on the grapes. For, as M. 

 Poiteau has truly observed, no leaves can be safely removed 

 by any one who does not possess some just notions of 

 vegetable physiology ; the leaves being the essential or- 

 gans which duly mature and give flavor to the juices of 

 the fruit. 



Vines trained to vertical walls, and growing in confined 

 or humid situations, are in our climate subject to mildew; 

 and on walls of this description which face due south, the 

 sun, during midsummer, never shines till an advanced hour 

 in the morning; and the benefits are never but partial, 

 from the oblique rays of a sun which at noonday must be 

 nearly vertical. 



The Hon. Richard Sullivan, whose former successful 

 cultivation of the vine at Brookline is well known, had at 

 one time suggested to me the idea of an inclined plane, as 

 preferable to vertical walls, which cause mildew. Mr. 

 Lindegard, in Denmark, for the purpose of hastening the 

 maturity of his grapes in his vinery, placed boards beneath 

 the fruit with perfect success. In the Annales d'Horticul- 

 ture is contained an account, that in France, in 1827, one 

 portion of a vine growing under a south window, having 

 ascended over the slated roof of the portico, it was found 

 that the fruit on this part of the vine had become black, 

 while the fruit on the other parts of the vine was still green. 



In our own latitude, or the latitude of Boston, where, 

 during midsummer, the sun at midday is nearly at the 

 zenith, an inclined plane, or roof, or wall, sloping, and 

 literally facing the noonday sun, will afford an exposition 

 much more favorable to the vine than vertical walls ; or at 

 that angle which will face the sun at that time, when, most 

 of all, his rays are needed, or towards the autumnal equi- 

 nox. Over this, and at suitable distance, the trellis may 

 be elevated, and upon this the vines displayed, whether 

 they arise at the foot of the plane, or are brought up from 

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