THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 227 



" With reference to manuring, a friend has lately communi- 

 cated to us the following interesting memorandum : — 



" When I visited the vineyards of Frontignan, I was much 

 struck with the exceeding tenderness and crispness (if I may 

 use the term,) of the grapes there grown, as compared with 

 the Muscats of our forcing-houses ; and, when I tasted the 

 Nice grape of Raby Castle, of which you were so good as to 

 send me a sample, the idea occurred to me, that the hardness 

 of the pulp might be owing to excessive manuring and forcing 

 of the vine ; and I thought of writing to you, to inquire if you 

 were aware of any facts, in the history of vegetation, that 

 would warrant such conclusion. I may mention, too, that 

 this latter grape, though magnificent to the eye, had, to my 

 taste, a flavor difierent from the ordinary Nice kind, some- 

 thing like what the French call gout de ferroir in wine. That 

 this peculiarity may originate from the foul manure that had 

 been given to the vine, I think highly probable ; and the 

 following instance will show how easily the flavor of the fruit 

 may be affected by substances less offensive than carrion. M. 

 De Chassirou has observed, that the wines of the Isles of Ole- 

 ron and Re, are of bad quality, and retain the odor peculiar 

 to the sea-weeds with which the vineyards there are manured. 

 In all wine countries, wiiere we may suppose the culture of 

 the vine to be best understood, the opinion universally pre- 

 vails, that fresh manure ought not to be used, or, if it be so, 

 that it should be applied in the autumn, after the vintage, so 

 as to be, in a great measure, decomposed, and incorporated 

 with the soil before the ascent of the sap, in the spring. This 



mentj and such a condition of the roots, as before-mentioned by him, could not 

 have furnished it. E. F. G. did not go deep enough into the border; if he had, (and 

 the vines were as he staled,) he then would have found, below all this mass of putrid 

 matter, the roots and rootlets which furnished the sap that produced these long 

 shoots and large leaves ; and these roots being so deep in the soil, is the cause why 

 the vines did not die from the effects of the manure, and is the reason they did not 

 fruit, the wood not ripening- sufficiently. A small part of this putrid matter, if it had 

 been changed, as it should have been, in the compost heap, and then applied as a 

 top-dressing, would have enticed the roots to the surface, and have been beneficial, 

 instead of destroying them, as it did. 



