230 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



his profession. But, until he can show that a bunch of Ham- 

 burgh, weighing five pounds, is not superior to one weighing 

 two pounds, five ounces, or a bunch of Muscats, of two 

 pounds, nine ounces, to one of the same kind weighing two 

 pounds, three ounces, — and such are the difierences between 

 Mr. Hutchison's Castle Malgwjn grapes and those of Eshton 

 Hall, — we must retain our opinion, that grapes are not im- 

 proved by being fed on carrion. It is said that Mr. Hutchi- 

 son's vines were seven years old, and those of Mr. Roberts 

 but two ; hut we learn, by the present gardener at Eshton, 

 that the vines there, now that they have become seven or eight 

 years old, only bear bunches averaging one pound. So that 

 the carrion fed-vines are not improved by age ; and their 

 present state is, to our minds, any thing rather than ' con- 

 clusive as to the advantages to be derived from using that 

 substance.' 



" Mr. Roberts states that some very fine grapes, seen by 

 him in Cheshire, had acquired their condition by being top- 

 dressed in the manner recommended by him. We find that 

 manner explained in his Treatise, to be 'a light top-dressing 

 of ground bones, loamy soil, rotten manure, and decayed 

 carrion, covering the whole with an inch or two of half-rot- 

 ten stable manure to prevent evaporation,' — a good appli- 

 ance, no doubt. But we are at a loss to know what this 

 has really to do with the question at issue. The use of a 

 little horse-flesh, in a state of decay, is surely not the same 

 thing as filling a border with lumps of putrid flesh. ' Adding 

 one good-sized horse or cow carcass to every ten or twelve 

 yards,' (Treatise), and we certainly should not be inclined to 

 apply to the recommendation Mr. Roberts's term, cautious. 

 We own that to us the advice seems rather the reverse. 

 But we half suspect that, after all the controversy, our differ- 

 ence in opinion from our very clever correspondent turns, 

 like many other differences, upon the meaning of a word. 

 What is really meant by carrion ? We understand it to be 

 puti'id flesh in the early stage of decomposition, emitting 



