64 BRIGHT ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



losing very little time or fruit by the operation. If you 

 have any fears that the divisions of the border will be 

 too small to sustain the vines, just reflect that a vine in 

 a pot eleven inches in diameter, containing little more 

 than half a cubic foot of soil, is capable of producing 

 from five to ten pounds of well perfected grapes, and 

 that the divisions of the border here described will con- 

 tain twelve cubic feet of soil, and may easily be increased 

 in size if desired, and the vines will be expected to bear 

 only about twenty to thirty pounds of grapes once in 

 two years. Borders have almost always been made too 

 large, some of them contain five hundred cubic feet of 

 soil to each vine, and immensely rich at that. Such 

 borders really do more harm than good. In a few years 

 they invariably become sodden and sour, and in many 

 instances the grapes mildew and shank, or the vines 

 die out altogether. The cost of such borders is very 

 great, and altogether unnecessary. If you wish to im- 

 prove a divided border without enlarging it, you can 

 easily remove some of the top soil, and replace it with 

 fresh, light, sweet, rich compost, or apply an increased 

 quantity of special fertilizers. Or, we have no doubt 

 that the vine might be lifted from a section of a divided 

 border, late in the fall, its roots freed of old soil, or even 

 washed out in warm water, and replanted in fresh soil, 

 •without material injury, if not with great advantage. 

 Indeed we think that small detached and divi^3 bor- 

 ders, entirely inside the house, will be found cheaper, 



