AMERICAN WILD VINE. 137 
vine," said he, "is a delicate, tender, and weak thing, and can by no means 
bear with hard usage; and, for the most part, it is consumed by too much 
labour, and bearing too great a quantity of fruit; and, if you do not restrain it 
within due bounds, it perishes by its own fruitfulness. But when it lias, in 
some measure, strengthened and hardened itself, and attained, as it were, to the 
vigour of youth, it may prosper under neglect. But a young vineyard, while it 
is growing up, unless it receives due care and attention, will be reduced to the 
poorest and most starving condition, and will pine and waste away, in such a 
manner, that it can never afterwards, by any experience whatsoever, be recovered 
and restored. Therefore, the foundations, as it were, must be laid with the 
greatest care, and from the first day of planting, it must be managed like infants, 
with unceasing attention, which, unless we do, all our expenses will be laid out 
to no purpose; nor can the proper season of anything be recalled, when once 
we let it pass." First, then, let us select a proper site of ground, and proceed at 
once, and trench it to the full depth required. If it be situated on a plain, or in 
a valley, it should he dug two feet in depth, and on rising ground three; but on 
a hill-side, somewhat steeper, it should be turned up at least four feet, in 
order that the roots may penetrate beyond the reach of drought. If the cut- 
tings are intended to be planted in drills or rows, let there be formed trenches 
three feet in length, two feet in depth, and the width of a spade, leaving inter- 
vals or baulks, a yard in length, between the trenches, till the row is finished. 
Then, with good virgin soil, if it be at hand, if not, let it be procured from the 
woods, let us fill the trenches therewith, mixing it at the same time with a due 
proportion of leaf-mould or well-rotted manure, or what is still better, the leaves 
and husks of vines, or grape-seeds,* in order to quicken and strengthen the 
growth of the plants. If a vineyard be the object which we have in view, let 
the rows or drills be trenched from five to ten feet asunder, according to the sur- 
face of the ground and the latitude of the place. If the situation be on a plain, 
in a high degree of latitude, the rows should be eight or ten feet apart; but if it 
be on the side of a very steep hill, or in a low degree of latitude, five feet will 
be sufficient; and on moderately inclined surfaces, or in higher latitudes, six or 
eight feet apart will be all that is required. With regard to the direction of the 
* This method of manuring vines was known and practised by the Carthaginians long before they 
were conquered by the Romans. One Mago, reputed among the classical ancients for the princely 
employment of delivering precepts concerning the tilling of the earth, who flourished more than two hun- 
dred years B. C, and wrote twenty-eight books on husbandry, proved that the husks of grapes and grape- 
seeds, mixed with dung, and put into the trenches with the vine-plants, quickened their growth, strength- 
ened the stems, and drew forth new roots. This idea accords precisely with the most enlightened princi- 
ples of modern chemistry and vegetable economy. It shows that a vineyard may be made to maintain 
perfect fruitfulness without the application of any manure, except the leaves and branches that are pruned 
from the vines. Indeed, an instance is recorded, where a man, in Germany, had a vineyard which he 
manured by no other means, and kept it in a thriving condition for thirty years. His mode of applying 
the vine-leaves and branches, was to hoe them into the soil after having cut them into small pieces. 
During this long period, no carbon was conveyed to the soil nor to the vines themselves, except that 
contained in their pruned branches, the rains, dews, and in the atmosphere, so that the vines were placed 
in exactly the same condition as trees in a forest, which receive no manure except from their decayed 
branches and leaves. Under ordinary circumstances, a manure containing potash must be used, other- 
wise the fertility of the soil will decrease. From this it follows, that in nature every vegetable produces 
its own pabulum or support, and that the earth only serves to bear the plant, and not to aid or nourish it 
in vegetation. The food of plants is thus supposed to be derived from air and water, heat and light, or 
electricity in different proportions, adapted to the various productions of the vegetable world. This doc- 
trine may further be corroborated by an instance which occurred in France in 1810. Messrs. Poillard 
and Bernard, who date their letter at Brest, assert that they succeeded in raising perfect wheat upon a 
pane of glass covered with straw. They state that there was not the smallest particle of earth upon the 
glass, and that the plants were left entirely to themselves, without being watered or attended to in any 
way whatever, from the time oJ owing to the time of reaping. And we can aver that we have seen 
fields of sugar-cane, in the island of Cuba, which have produced abundant crops from the same roots, for 
nearly a quarter of a century, without any manure, except the tops and leaves of the cane that have been 
left on the ground, and worked into the soil by the hoe. 
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