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dressing. How often have we seen stable and other 

 manures lying in badly constructed stables or fold 

 yards, during November and December, with their 

 properties washing away with drenching rains, and 

 which might as well have lain over the vine-roots 

 during the same period. If a border is well drained, 

 of a good texture, and more than a foot in depth, all 

 the rest may be accomplished by top-dressing for 

 very many years. Top-dressing, in the rest season, 

 may be laid on any thickness, according to the wants 

 of the vines, from six inches to two feet ; the latter 

 depth, however, is seldom requisite. One point of 

 caution is here necessary, viz., that the chief body of 

 this top-dressing be removed when the roots are in 

 action. Admitting this to be in April or May, its 

 place may be supplied by a little rotten manure, or 

 half-rotten vegetable soil, about two inches thick ; 

 this will ward off extreme drought, and encourage a 

 new layer of surface roots. 



In old borders the chief fault is stagnation. This 

 may be caused in two different ways. First, by the 

 inefficiency of the drains, either improperly disposed 

 at the first or choked up by age in some portion or 

 other. Secondly, by derangement of texture in the 

 soil ; and this undoubtedly constitutes the great ma- 

 jority of the complaints. Now, even a border made 

 of loam, unless what is termed sandy loam, if 2 or 3 

 feet in depth, would become in time too much closed 



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