THE GRAPE. 219 



tooniirg the tops of huge poplars and sycamores. In a cultivated 

 state, however, it is found that fine flavour, and uniform pro- 

 ductiveness, require the plants to be kept pruned within a small 

 compass. 



USES. The grape in its finest varieties, as the Hamburgh 

 and the Muscat, is in flavour .hardly surpassed by any other 

 fruit in delicacy and richness, and few or none are more beau- 

 tiful in the dessert. Dried, it forms the raisin of commerce. 

 the most excellent of all dried fruits, every where esteemed, 

 And wine, the fermented juice, has always been the first of all 

 exhilarating liquors. Some idea of the past consumption of this 

 product may be formed from the fact that more than ,500,000,000 

 imperial gallons have been made in France, in a single year ; 

 and as a data to judge of its value, we may add, that, while a 

 great proportion of the vin ordinaire, or common wine, is sold at 

 10 or 12 cents a bottle ; on the other hand, particular old and 

 rare vintages of Madeiras or Sherries will not unfrequently 

 command twenty or thirty dollars a gallon. 



SOIL. The universal experience in all countries has establish- 

 ed the fact that a dry and warm soil is the very best for the 

 vine. Where vineyards are cultivated, a limestone soil, or one 

 composed of decaying calcareous rocks, is by far the best ; but 

 where, as in most gardens, the vine is raised solely for its fruit, 

 the soil should be highly enriched. The foreign grape will 

 scarcely thrive well here on a heavy soil, though our native va- 

 rieties grow and bear well on any strong land, but the essence 

 of all that can be said in grape culture respecting soil is that 

 it be dry and light, deep and rich. Frequent top-dressings of 

 well rotted manure should be applied to vines in open borders, 

 and this should every third or fourth year be alternated with 

 a dressing of slacked lime. 



PROPAGATION. The grape vine makes roots very freely, and 

 is, therefore, easy of propagation. Branches of the previous 

 or current year's wood bent down any time before midsummer, 

 and covered with earth, as layers, root very freely, and make 

 bearing plants in a couple of years, or very frequently indeed 

 bear the next season. 



But the finer varieties of the vine are almost universally pro- 

 pagated by cuttings, as that is a very simple mode, and an 

 abundance of the cuttings being afforded by the annual trim- 

 ming of the vines. 



When cuttings are to be planted in the open border, a some- 

 what moist and shaded place should be chosen for this purpose. 

 The cuttings should then be made of the young wood of the 

 previous years' growth, cut into lengths about a foot or eighteen 

 inches long, and having three buds one near the top, one at 

 the bottom, and the third in the middle. Before planting the 

 cutting pare off its lower end smoothly, close below the buds, 



