166 ON PLANTING AND MANAGING 



considerably lessened, by planting the roots of vine 

 in drier and warmer materials than common soil. 



The grape vine in whatsoever part of the world it 

 may be growing, whether in its native country, or on 

 the confines of the torrid zone, or at the extreme limit 

 of the vinous latitude in either hemisphere, delights 

 most in rocky, stony, or gravelly soils, and it is in soils 

 of this description that grapes are brought to a far 

 higher degree of perfection than in any other description 

 of soil whatever. On examination, the reason will be 

 obvious. The vine, from the succulent nature of its 

 shoots while they are yet green, and in the course of 

 formation throughout the summer, requires, during 

 that period, a constant supply of moisture for the roots 

 to feed upon ; and that particular degree of moisture 

 which has been found by experience to produce in a 

 vine a suitable growth, accompanied by a healthy and 

 perfect developement of its fruit-bearing powers, is al- 

 ways present in soils of the above-mentioned descrip. 

 tion. And this constant presence of moisture arises 

 from the fact, that fragments of rocks, stones, or other 

 similar hard substances, when embedded in the soil, 

 always attract moisture to their surfaces, which are 

 therefore, in consequence, never dry. Hence the roots 

 of vines delight to ramble in such soils, in preference 

 to all others, because they derive therein a steady, con- 

 stant, and equable supply of moisture throughout all the 

 variations of the season, as free from excess on the one 

 hand, as from a deficiency on the other. Soils, there- 

 fore, that contain the greatest quantity of these mate- 

 rials, so disposed or placed together, whether by na- 

 ture or art, as to present to the roots of the vine the 

 greatest possible extent of surface within a given 

 space, are precisely those which are adapted for the 

 successful culture of the vine. 



In the hottest countries of the vinous latitude, 



