76 BRIGHT ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



for vineyards, from two to five feet deep. Mr. Eeeme- 

 lin, of Ohio, says so in his Vine Dresser's Manual. 

 This may be true, in some instances, but if true, it does 

 not by any means prove that it is best to induce the 

 vines to root so deeply. It cannot, however, be the ge- 

 neral custom, for two reasons; first, the people in Spain, 

 and some other countries, are too indolent and too poor 

 to expend so much labor on the preparation of the vine- 

 yard; and secondly, the nature of the rocky soil on the 

 hill-sides, where most of the vineyards are located, does 

 not admit of such deep culture. Mr. Redding, whose trea- 

 tise on Modern Wines is a standard English authority 

 on this subject, says, that at Malaga, in Spain, where 

 the most delicious wine is produced, " most of the vines 

 flourish in about eighteen inches of a rich loam or 

 mould, upon a blue shaly substratum, or rocky forma- 

 tion. The vineyards are, many of them, situated at a 

 great height above the sea, where the earth about the 

 vines must he carcfidJy securcdy^ (so little is thereof it, 

 and so loosely does it lie on the rocks, we presume.) 

 Redding, in his interesting treatise, gives many other 

 instances of shallow soils which produce large crops of 

 grapes, and the best of wine. 



The eff"ect of a deep, rich border in the vinery, for 

 the first two or three years, is very gratifying to the 

 cultivator. The first year the vine makes a strong, 

 rampant growth, and fine foliage, and continues to grow 

 in this luxuriant way for two years longer. The owner 

 of the vines, and the gardener, are delighted with their 



