GRAPE CULTURE, 31 



You might as well expect a man to thrive by eating a good dinner 

 with his feet in ice-water, as a vine to thrive, thougli well manured, 

 with its roots in a cold, wet soil. 



Mr. Moore asked how a soil could be both warm and moist. 



Mr. Wilder replied that he had a sand bed for striking cuttings, 

 and this year he had in it much coarser sand than usual. The 

 sand is moist, but warm, for the drainage is perfect, and his cut- 

 tings strike better than ever before. 



The Chairman referred to Mr. Barnett's essay, and showed that 

 he had spoken of a warm, dry soil, as well as a warm, moist soil, 

 being required by the grape, and said that we must reconcile these 

 statements as we best could. He thought that in providing such 

 a depth of soil Mr. Barnett meant to have it moist. 



Mr. French said that a thoroughly dried soil would absorb half 

 its weight of water. Soil that is drained will hold more moisture 

 than an undrained soil. 



Mr. Moore asked, Is not the reason that Mr, Barnett wants a 

 moist soil, that he has got an acre of vines on a quarter of an 

 acre of gi'ound? 



Mr. French said you cannot heat water from the surface, and it 

 is the same with soil. In a cold season the heat does not go down 

 in an undrained soil as in one that is drained. 



James Murray remarked that there were exceptions to all rules, 

 and that he knew of a standard Lawrence pear tree which stood 

 on the banks of the Charles river, with the roots not more^than 

 two feet above the level of high water, where the ground in spring 

 is a perfect marsh This tree is every season loaded with the 

 finest fruit, so as always to excite his astonishment, but he would 

 not like to plant an orchard of pears on such soil. 



Mr. Wilder added, as another apparent exception to a general 

 rule, that thougli the Beurre Bosc is commonly supposed to require 

 a warm soil, the tree which produces his best fruit of that variety 

 stands in a low, wet soil, where hundreds of dollars worth of trees 

 around it have been killed by standing water. Such instances, 

 however, do not invalidate the general principle. 



James Cruickshanks would let vines have all the rain, but it has 

 generally been considered that dew is one of the worst things j^ou 

 can have on vines, causing mildew. William Saunders, of the 

 Agricultural Department at Washington, furnished his trellises 

 with copings to protect the native grapes from the fall of the dew. 



