CULTIVATION of tiir VINE, 



I 



97 



vantage to the vine. This is a great midake. For as foon 

 as the vine flioots it roots, heyond this rich mixture, 

 into the common foil, which is many degrees poorer ancl 

 colder, the roots, as it were, recoil and flirink back at a 

 coldncfs and poverty, they had not been ufed to, and the 

 vegetation is (lopped, and the plant dwindles into poverty 

 and barrenefs; and if you examine the plant at bottom, 

 you will find that inftead of extending its roots to their 

 ufual length., it has (hot out a great number of fmall fibres 

 hkc threads, which extend xw farther than the good mould 

 and thefe being quite infufficient to anfwer the demands 

 of nature, the plant perifhes, or remains in an inadiveand 

 barren ftate. Whereas, had the vine been planted in the 

 common foil at firft, it would have met with no alteration 



no fudden change to check its growth. This (hews that 

 the foil lliould be well mixed; and Ifet me tell you once 

 for all, that the vine delights in a warm, comfortable, fruit- 

 ful foil; but proves unfruitful and periflies in a foil cold 

 and barren. Yet a foil may be too rich, or made too rank 

 b-y dung, and this extreme is alfo to be avoided. But to 

 return to planting our vines, the holes being dug accord- 

 ing to your mind, plant your vine, fetting the foot forward 

 from the ftake, and bend It a little, without cracking the 

 bark, and bring it gently up againft the (lake, fo that one 

 eye only remains above the furface of the ground. Let 

 not the eye touch the fiake, but look from it/Vhen mixing 

 the ground well together, throw it in and prefs it gently 

 about tlie vine, till the hole is almod full, and throw the 

 reft in lightly, v/iihout prefhng, fo that it may rife up to the 

 eye of die vine, which ought to be about two indies above 

 tlic common furfiice. By this means, the vine will be pre- 



) 



uegii^s 



feryed from drying winds and the hot Sun, till it 

 to grow. Some place four or five paving ftones about the 

 foot of the vine, not fo clofe but that the roots may ilioot 

 out between them, and thefe they' fay, and I think vvith 

 rcafon, condcnfethe air in hot dry feafons, and riourifh the 

 vine with moifture, and cool and refrefli it vAicn parched 



Vol- I. 



C 



c 



\^ith 



