THE GRAPE VINE. 6 1 



moisture, it will not put up with stagnant water at 

 any season. 



BORDERS THEIR COMPOSITION. 



In forming borders for the cultivation of grapes, 

 greater regard should be directed towards the main- 

 tenance of vines in such a condition as is likely to 

 yield satisfactory crops for a lengthened period of 

 time, than to the production of larger bunches with 

 perhaps less certainty for a few years, to be followed 

 by a general and rapid decline in the constitution of 

 the vines, and, as a necessary consequence, in the 

 amount and quality of the crops they bear. That 

 such different results are to a very great extent indeed 

 dependent on the mechanical and manurial state of the 

 soil, is a fact that cannot fail to have become perfectly 

 obvious to those who have studied the growth of the 

 vine in borders of opposite characters and composition. 

 That the vine will continue in a healthy bearing state 

 for a greater length of time under favourable circum- 

 stances than almost any other fruit -bearing plant or 

 tree, is abundantly proved by the fact that of many of 

 the same varieties that are cultivated in this country, 

 there are in France and Italy whole vineyards, now 

 in full bearing, which were in the same condition 

 three centuries ago. And in this country there are 

 instances of vines now bearing well in vineries 

 that were planted some eighty, and others more than 

 a hundred, years ago. I have inspected excellent 

 crops of grapes on vines at Dumfries House, in Ayr- 

 shire, which, I was told, can be traced back one hun- 

 dred and forty-five years. At Speddoch, in Dumfries- 

 shire, the seat of Gilchrist Clark, Esq., there is a 



