OPEN-AIR CULTURE. 79 



be run, they might strike plants from cuttings of two 

 eyes by the thousand, to be transplanted by having 

 their roots properly spread out in the soil as it is being 

 trenched ; such plants would come sooner into a bear- 

 ing state, and make better permanent vines than those 

 planted as at present. And when the great value of 

 the produce of a single acre of vineyard is considered, 

 no ordinary preliminary expense ought to be withheld 

 that would add to its productiveness. A gentleman, 

 who has vineyards in the neighbourhood of Sydney, 

 told me recently, that from one acre of vines he sells 

 100 worth of grapes in the Sydney market annually, 

 and of those that are not fit for market he makes 

 twelve hundred gallons of wine that he can sell at 3s. 

 6d. per gallon. 



As a manure for vineyards nothing will prove so 

 permanently beneficial as broken bones. The green 

 prunings of the vines are also useful as a manure, and 

 should be forked or dug into the soil once a-year ; but 

 the roots of the vines should be disturbed as little as 

 possible. The stakes used for supporting the vines 

 should have their points charred and dipped in pitch 

 while hot, to a couple of inches above their ground 

 line ; and instead of using a stake for each vine, four 

 could be bent so as to meet at a central point, where 

 they could be tied to one stake. 



PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. 



