On the Fo}'matlo?i of Vine Borders. 117 



commend him as a man who fully understands his profession. 

 It is not made up of what he has seen — what he has heard — 

 or what he has read ; — it is not collected from this book — from 

 that pamphlet — or from the periodicals of the day ; — but is 

 the result of his own experience — not conducted with a view 

 to publication for mere authorship, but for his own practical 

 purpose as a reference for future use — ^jnst such a collection of 

 facts as any gardener who loves his profession would always 

 seek to possess — but, unfortunately, what most neglect to 

 obtain. His remarks, therefore, will have much greater 

 weight than if they had been the results of experiments now 

 in course of practice, or just completed. 



It is unnecessary for us to occupy room with a review of 

 Mr. Leuchars' article. It speaks for itself. But we may be 

 permitted to state that not only do the facts he adduces show 

 the injurious tendency of carrion borders, but they substan- 

 tiate our opinion of the proper materials of which grape bor- 

 ders should be made, that is, loam, manure, and bones ; just 

 the substances we recommended in our first article, (Vol. XIII. 

 p. 400.) It is easy enough to show that grapes can be pro- 

 duced in borders made of a melange of brickbats, old mortar, 

 charcoal, old boots, rags, wood ashes, fat hogs, &c. So 

 " accommodating a plant" is the vine, as Mr. Leuchars states, 

 that nobody doubts grapes can be thus raised. The question 

 is not what can be done, but what are the means of arriving 

 at the greatest results. Facts only will determine this ; these 

 have been given us by Mr. Leuchars. He has shown what 

 the soil alone will do which nature, in her bounteous gifts, 

 has supplied us with. He has again shown what such in- 

 gredients as putrefying masses of dead hogs and horses will 

 accomplish. Both are failures ; and, though the author mod- 

 estly tells us he will not undertake to give a chemical anal- 

 ysis of these substances, he states enough to leave no doubt 

 in the minds of all intelligent cultivators, that both are con- 

 trary to all our notions of the action of soils ; the first being 

 deficient in organic matter ; the latter in the inorganic com- 

 pounds. His other experiment proves that a judicious ad- 

 mixture of loam and manure, in which a proper proportion 

 of the organic and inorganic substances are supplied, is that 

 which has produced the happiest results. 



