68 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



perior fruit without a proper supply of moisture, it is advisa- 

 ble to resort to some other method of avoiding too much wet. 

 This can be done by using in the border a due proportion of 

 broken bricks, oyster or any other shells, old mortar and 

 small stones, fine charcoal, etc. ; all these articles have a ten- 

 dency to keep the soil open, and to cause the water, when 

 superabundant, to pass off; they also are porous and retentive, 

 and very serviceable in yielding to the vine, in a season of 

 drought, the desired moisture. These articles should be in- 

 corporated with the soil of the border ; not (as advised by 

 this gentleman,) laid in a mass of one foot depth at the 

 bottom. The material in the compost of the soil for the 

 border is unexceptionable, and the manner of preparing it, 

 with the exception of the carcasses of animals, which should 

 be obtained at the time of preparing the border ; or, whole 

 bones substituted for them. Slaughter-house manure may be 

 used instead of both of these articles, when it can be had of 

 a suitable quality, that is, when it consists mainly of the offal 

 of the slaughter-house, sheep's heads, hoofs, &c., with a good 

 proportion of bones. 



The system of growing the plants from single eyes, and the 

 manner of planting them in the border, is the common method 

 as practised by gardeners generally, at the present time. 



Soon after planting the vines commences the operation of 

 heating the border by manure piled over the roots. This is 

 relied upon by Mr. Roberts as the great good. The necessity 

 for this artificial heat does not exist in the summer months in 



in any month ; and the effect upon the grapes was bad, a large part of them suffer- 

 ing from the rot. 



In England, there fell, during " 1845, 23 33-100 inches ; in 1846, 27 71-100 inches 5 

 in 1847, 16 25-100 inches, the smallest quantity that has fallen in any year since the 

 present century." — Gardeners' Chronicle, 1848, p. 24. 



A great difference is here shown in the year 1847. In seven months of that year, 

 in Salem, there fell 27 49-100 inches, when, in the whole year, but 16 25-100 fell in 

 England. 



The extreme range of the mercury, by a Fahrenheit thermometer, for 33 years, in 

 Salem, Mass., latitude 42° 34', north, longitude 70° 54', west, was, in summer, 101° ; 

 in winter, 13° below zero. In Philadelphia, latitude 39° 57', longitude 75° 11', in 

 summer, 103° ; in winter, 7° below zero. 



