218 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



gorged "with manure, and fleshings of tanners and skin- 

 ners,' and compares them, as we understand him, with his 

 own. But, in truth, there is no analogy. Not a particle 

 of carrion was employed there. Such animal matters as 

 skin, hair, and trimmings of liides, decompose very slowly, 

 and are not carrion any more than bones are. It is the 

 animal matter which rapidly becomes putrid, and passes off 

 in clouds of poisonous gas, that renders carrion, properly so 

 called, objectionable. 



" The vine-dressers of France object to manure altogether. 

 Virgil, to be sure, recommends it in some lines, which should 

 be committed to memory by every young gardener : — 



Next : when you layers in your vineyard make, 

 Mix some rich dung, and shells and pebbles break, 

 Spread the good soil with lib'ral hand around, 

 And trench them deeply in the lightened ground ; 

 Superfluous moisture thus glides through the earth. 

 And healthy vapors aid the tender birth. 



" No doubt these are wise maxims. No modern discovery 

 is at variance with them ; on the contrary, they are con- 

 firmed by the experience of the most intehigent cultivators. 

 The whole aim of the poet is to inculcate the necessitj^ of 

 keeping the soil loose. Dung may be used, he says, but then 

 you are to mix it with shells and broken pebbles, the object 

 of which is to secure the constant openness of the soil. 



" On the other hand, Chaptal, the best French writer on 

 the vine, discourages the use of manure. 



" ' The same reasons,' he says, ' may be used against the 

 system of the vine-growers of the north, who think it advan- 

 tageous to manure their vines. By this means, indeed, they 

 obtain larger crops, and more wine, but it is of bad quahty, 

 it will not keep ; and its smell often reminds one, when drank, 

 of the disgusting substances ivhich produced it. Manure 

 communicates to the vine too much nourishment. The nutri- 

 tious juice, reduced to gas, and received by the mouths of 

 the capillary roots, and by the air-vessels of the leaves, pene- 



