THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 235 



torn " is not inviting," and can bear ample testimony that 

 the air is charged with gas from putrefying matter, yet we 

 hear of no bad effect from this ; and, if a single hedgehog in 

 a greenhouse would kill plants, it would appear probable that 

 thousands, and tens of thousands, of these white fish, spread 

 over the surface of the land, would affect the foliage in the 

 fields, wherein they were undergoing this change. 



Dr. Lindley then says, " The vine-dressers of France 

 object to 7nanure altogether.''^ I cannot pass this remark by, 

 without a direct denial of the assertion. The gentleman 

 himself does it effectually in the quotation he brings forward 

 from Chaptal, and the continuation of the subject of manures 

 by this French author, given under the head of manures for 

 vineyards, will still farther explain the customs of the French. 

 My own belief is, that the French manure their vineyards : 

 that there are exceptions to this, it may be. Chaptal, and 

 other authors, are opposed to the custom, I admit ; but other 

 persons, who write what they have seen and know, state that 

 they are used. Chaptal wishes to discourage the use of it, 

 from a belief that it injures the juice of the grape ; that it 

 increases the size of the berry, he admits, and that is what 

 all are endeavoring to obtain, when cultivating for the table, 

 and the plan of cultivation which will produce this, without 

 injury to the amount of the crop, flavor, or color, of the 

 fruit, is the best. 



Dr. Lindley is of the opinion, that the grapes shown by 

 Mr. Gower have surpassed those grown by Mr. Roberts. 

 From the printed account of them, I should have preferred 

 to have been the one who produced the six kinds named, as 

 having been shown by the latter. Three of these varieties 

 usually setting poorly, all of which were sufficiently large, 

 and the White Nice, (a kind that makes a large bunch, but 

 a hght weighing fruit,) remarkably so ; they Avere all repre- 

 sented as having been beautiful. Mr. Gower's, though his 

 Hamburgh bunches were large, were rather deficient in 

 color, — a want that, in my estimation, would make them 



