ON VINERIES. 



they form a sort of cesspool for draining the land 

 around them. Where the substratum is a cold, wet 

 swamp, the houses and borders should not be on a low 

 level. Where the formation is chalk or gravel, the 

 borders may be made about three parts below the level 

 of the walks, which will prevent evaporation going on 

 too rapidly. 



I hold it as being very beneficial so to put a vine 

 border together, that the electricity of the atmosphere 

 can act the important part of decomposing the consti- 

 tuents of the vine. This will strike all interested in 

 vine-growing as being a most important matter, and 

 more particularly those who have studied the important 

 discovery made by Sir Humphry Davy in the year 1807, 

 when, by means of a galvanic battery (of his own con- 

 struction), he made known to the world the metallic 

 base of potash, which opened the field to horticultural 

 and agricultural chemistry. 



I have too often seen the amateur and inexperienced 

 gardener select the vine borders, both inside and out- 

 side, as seed-beds for lettuce, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, 

 and annuals. Is it possible under such management for 

 nature to assist the cultivator as she would if these were 

 absent? How many have gone to the expense and 

 trouble of- building vineries, selecting the choicest soils 

 and materials for the vines, and, when completed, begin 



to impoverish the borders with vegetables and flowers ! 



20 



? 



1 



