Manures and Chemical Applications. 227 



resistance offered by the root is only a stimulus to greater 

 efforts. 



To obviate this difficulty, some vine-dressers advocate the 

 practice introduced by the European vignerons, which they 

 call cutting away the " dew-roots." It consists in removing 

 the earth at the base of the vines, and cutting off all the roots 

 that can be found within a few inches of the surface. The 

 avowed object of this kind of root-pruning is very different, 

 and is intended to force the vine to produce, and to depend 

 upon deeper roots, which, it is claimed, are apt to decay and 

 die when the superficial roots are encouraged.] 



XL 



MANURES AND CHEMICAL APPLICA- 

 TIONS FOR VINEYARDS. 



A/T ANURES, properly so-called, are more especially 

 those substances which, applied to the soil, 

 furnish the roots with the nutritive principles necessary 

 for the development of plants. They consist, princi- 

 pally, of organic substances. The chemical applica- 

 tions, composed of mineral substances, have for their 

 chief aim a more or less complete modification of the 

 elementary composition of the soil, so as to render its 

 physical or chemical properties more favorable to vegeta- 

 tion. Let us inquire into these two operations as ap- 

 plied to vineyards. 



MANURES. Their Importance. The vine, like all 

 other plants, in order to develop itself, requires, in the 

 soil, the nutritive principles necessary for its growth. 

 Almost all soils naturally contain a certain quantity of 

 these elements. They are nitrogen, and certain saline 



