THE CULTtTRE 01" THE GRAVE. 47 



for many years. "What is ■wanted in a grape border, is a 

 rich, permeable soil, enduring in its nature, in which the 

 roots can ramble and spread freely. Too much water 

 will injure the fruit ; a deficiency of moisture will pre- 

 vent its swelling off properly 



The following account of Soils and Manures, as re- 

 commended by several eminent cultivators, is annexed : — 



Speechly recommends " the soil to be one fourth part 

 of garden mould, a strong loam ; one fourth of the swarth 

 or turf from a pasture where the soil is a sandy loam ; 

 one fourth, of the sweepings and scrapings of pavements 

 and hard roads ; one eighth, of rotten cow and stable- 

 yard dung mixed ; and one eighth, of vegetable mould 

 from reduced and decaj^ed oak leaves. The swarth 

 should be laid on a heap, till the grass roots" are in a 

 state of decay, and then turned over and broken with a 

 spade ; let it then be put to the other materials, and the 

 whole worked together, till the separate parts become 

 uniformly mixed. 



" A garden, and consequently the hot-house, is some- 

 times so happily situated in regard to soil that it seems, 

 by nature, adapted to the growth of the vine. The soil 

 in which I have known the vine to prosper in a superla- 

 tive degree, without artificial aid, was a kind of rich, 

 sandy loam, intermixed with thin beds of materials, like 

 jointed slate or stones, and so very soft in its nature as 

 almost to be capable of being crumbled between the 

 fingers. The following extract from Virgil, on this topic, 

 will be deemed neither inapplicable nor disagreeable to 

 the candid reader : — 



