212 APPENDIX. 



maintained in this manner for eight years, and 'according 

 to the second statement for ten years. 



Now, during this long period, no carbon was conveyed to 

 the soil, for that contained in the pruned branches was the 

 produce of the plant itself, so that the vines were placed 

 exactly in the same condition as trees in a forest which 

 received no manure. Under ordinary circumstances a 

 manure containing potash must be used, otherwise the 

 fertility of the soil will decrease. This is done in all wine- 

 countries, so that alkalies to a very considerable amount 

 must be extracted from the soil. 



When, however, the method of manuring now to be 

 described is adopted, the quantity of alkalies exported in the 

 wine does not exceed that which the progressive disinte- 

 gration of the soil every year renders capable of being 

 absorbed by the plants. On the Rhine 1 litre of wine is cal- 

 culated as the yearly produce of a square metre of land (10'8 

 square feet English). Now if we suppose that the wine is 

 three-fourths saturated with cream of tartar, a proportion 

 much above the truth, then we remove from every square 

 metre of land with the wine only 1*8 gramme of potash. 

 1000 grammes (1 litre) of champagne yield only 1'54, and 

 the same quantity of Wachenheimer 1*72 of a residue which 

 after being heated to redness is found to consist of car- 

 bonates. 



One vine-stock, on an average, grows on every square 

 metre of land, and 1000 parts of the pruned branches 

 contain 56 to 60 parts of carbonate, or 38 to 40 parts of pure 

 potash. Hence it is evident that 45 grammes, or 1 ounce, of 

 these branches contain as much potash as 1000 grammes (1 

 litre) of wine. But from ten to twenty times this quantity of 

 branches are yearly taken from the above extent of surface. 



In the vicinity of Johannisberg, Rudesheim, and Budes- 

 heim, new vines are not planted after the rooting out of the 

 old stocks, until the land has lain for five or six years in 

 barley and esparsette or lucern ; in the sixth year the 

 young stocks planted, but not manured till the ninth. 



