im 



PLANTING AND MANAGING 



may be growing, whether in its native country, or on 

 the confines of the torrid zone, or at the extreme hmit 

 of the vinous latitude in either hemisphere, delights 

 most in rocky, stony, or gravelly soils, and it is in 

 soils of this description that grapes are brought to a 

 far higher degree of perfection than in any other de- 

 scription of soil whatever. On examination, the rea- 

 son will be obvious. The vine, from the succulent 

 nature of its shoots while they are yet green, and in 

 the coarse of formation throughout the summer, re- 

 quires during that period a constant supply of mois- 

 ture for the roots to feed upon ; and that particular 

 degree of moisture which has been found by experi- 

 ence to produce in a vine a suitable growth, accom- 

 panied by a healthy and perfect development of its 

 fruit-bearing powers, is always present in soils of the 

 above-mentioned description. And this constant 

 presence of moisture arises from the fact, that frag- 

 ments of rocks, stones, or other similar hard substan- 

 ces, when embedded in the soil, always attract mois- 

 ture to their surfaces, which are therefore, in conse- 

 quence, never dry. Hence the roots of vines delight 

 to ramble in such soils, in preference to all others, be- 

 cause they derive therein a steady, constant, and equa- 

 ble supply of moisture throughout all the variations of 

 the season, as free from excess on the one hand, as from 

 a deficiency on the other. Soils, therefore, that contain 

 the greatest quantity of these materials, so disposed or 

 placed together, whether by nature or art, as to present 

 to the roots of the vine the greatest possible extent of 

 surface within a given space, are precisely those which 

 are adapted for the successful culture of the vine. 



In the hottest countries of the vinous latitude, soils 

 of this descriprion invariably produce the finest flavor- 

 ed grapes ; and if the roots of vines growing there 

 under such circumstances can procure sufficient nour- 

 ishment to accomplish this, where the temperature is 

 so much higher, and where the expenditure of sap 

 through the medium of the leaves, in consequence of 

 the intensity of the solar rays, is so much greater than 



