46 ON SOIL. 



rapid to afford a sufficiency of solar heat to perfect 

 the fruit. 



To prevent this, the subsoil should be composed of 

 dry materials. It is almost impossible, indeed, to make 

 a vine border of materials that shall be too dry or porous. 

 It is not mere earth that the roots require to come in 

 contact with, to induce growth and extension, but 

 air also, which is as necessary to them as to the leaves 

 and branches. The excrementitious matter discharged 

 from the roots of a vine is very great ; and if this be 

 given out in a soil that is close and adhesive, and 

 through which the action of the solar rays is feeble, 

 the air in the neighbourhood of the roots quickly be- 

 comes deleterious, and a languid and diseased vegeta- 

 tion immediately follows. But if the roots grow in 

 a soil composed of dry materials, mixed together in 

 such a manner as to possess a series of cavities and in- 

 terstices, into which the sun's rays can enter with free- 

 dom, and there exert their full power, the air in which 

 the roots perform their functions becomes warmed and 

 purified, they absorb their food in a medium which 

 dissipates their secretions, and a healthy and vigorous 

 vegetation is the never-failing consequence. 



The roots of every plant have a peculiar tempera- 

 ture in which they thrive best ; and that which those 

 of the vine delight in most is generated in a greater 

 degree in stony or rocky soils than in any other. 

 This is easily accounted for from the fact that soils 

 of this description, being quickly rendered dry by eva- 

 poration, are always free from that excess of moisture 

 which is so injurious to the growth of the vine. 



It may hence be inferred, that vines will not flour- 

 ish in a cold wet soil, nor in one composed of a stiff 

 heavy clay. Grapes produced on vines planted in such 

 soils scarcely ever ripen well, and, if so, never possess 

 the flavour of those grown on vines planted in a dry 



