58 ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS. 



inasmuch as it stimulates the plant too highly, causing 

 thereby an excessive and unnatural growth of wood, 

 which, being formed too rapidly, becomes long-jointed 

 and productive of leaf-buds instead of fruit-buds. 

 Liquid manures and top-dressings, therefore, must be 

 judiciously applied, lest a rank and barren vegetation 

 be induced, in lieu of a healthy and fruitful one. 

 This cautionary remark is the more necessary, as 

 vines are well known to be amongst the grossest 

 feeders in nature ; their roots absorbing with the ap- 

 petite of a glutton every description of liquid refuse 

 that is placed within their reach, however fetid or 

 nauseous it may be. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS. 



To ripen any of the sorts of grapes cultivated in this 

 country, sufficiently to be used as table fruit, requires 

 the shelter and reflected heat of a wall. 



The proper height of a wall intended for the train- 

 ing of vines upon, must depend in a great measure on 

 local circumstances. In an unsheltered situation, and 

 an aspect exposed to the injurious influence of west- 

 erly or south-westerly winds, I have never seen fine 

 grapes produced much higher than eight feet from the 

 ground. But, in situations and aspects of an opposite 

 description, no limit to the height of a wall need be 

 assigned, for as fine grapes may be matured at the 

 distance of twenty feet from the ground as at any less 

 height. Grapes, when growing at a less distance than 

 about four feet from the ground, certainly enjoy a 

 considerable increase of reflected heat, particularly if 

 the surface adjoining the wall be paved or covered with 



