34 BRIGHT ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



the best of all soils for the grape, and that it cannot be 

 greatly improved, for the growth of the vine, for a year 

 or two, by any sort of manuring whatever. In such a 

 soil, the vine grows naturally, luxuriantly, and health- 

 fully. It is the best of all soils for a grape border, and 

 only when we come to fruit the vine heavily do we need 

 manures and fertilizers to sustain it. It is a great mis- 

 take to suppose that a grape vine, newly set in a border, 

 must at once be fed with an abundance of rich and 

 stimulating manure. There is no objection to the appli- 

 cation of an abundance of well decomposed sod or peat 

 compost, made with one-fourth part of stable manure, 

 and some leaf mould and bone dust. But people do not 

 rightly understand the meaning of the phrase " well 

 decomposed.'^ It requires either the use of powerful 

 chemical agents, or a year or two of time to render stable 

 manure and peat really " well decomposed." It must 

 be reduced to a state analogous to that of an old garden 

 soil, in which it is impossible to distinguish any of the 

 various ingredients of which it is composed. In this 

 condition, all the vegetable matter is converted into a 

 sort of humus, and all inorganic substances are either in 

 a soluble state or ready to become so ; the acids and 

 alkalies are in a neutral state, or in the shape of harm- 

 less salts ; moisture is abundant, and ammonia is not 

 wanting. Such preparation of the soil, and such com- 

 posts, suit the grape vine a great deal better than animal 

 offal and raw bones, which in vine borders we trust 

 have had their day. 



