THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 89 



severe droughts ;* and, as the vine cannot succeed in pro- 

 ducing superior fruit without a proper supply of mois- 

 ture, it is advisable to resort to some other method of 

 avoiding too tnuch wet. This can be done by using in 

 the border a due j^roportion of broken bricks, oyster or 

 any other shells, old mortar and small stones, fine char- 

 coal, etc. ; all these articles have a tendency to keep the 

 soil open, and to cause the water, when superabundant, 

 to pass off; they also are porous and retentive, and very 



* In Loudon's Magazine, page 303, for the year 1833, is a horticultural 

 diary. By this it appears that, at the place of record in England, the -wea- 

 ther of that year was 152 fine clear days, 83 cloudy, and 130 when it 

 rained or snowed some part of the day. 



At Salem, the average of three years is, 219 fine clear days, 66 oloudj- 

 80 ramy or snowy, showing the difierenoe, in the United States, of 66 days 

 more of sunshine, 50 days less rainy or snowy, and 11 days less of cloudy 

 weather. 



Notwithstanding this difference in the weather, the average quantity of raiu 

 which annually falls is greater in the United States than in England ; there, 

 the mean average is 31i inches ; in Salem, Mass., United States, 39 inches. 



The time of the year in which the grape is usually ripening, under glass 

 structures, embraces seven months, say from March to November ; during 

 this period, in 1845, there fell, at Salem, 24 61-100 inches: in 1846, 

 16 97-100 inclies; in 184T, 27 49-100 inches. In the month of September, 

 1847, there fell 6| inches, the greatest quantity in any month; and the 

 effect upon the grapes was bad, a large part of them suffering from tlie rot. 



In England, there fell, during "1845, 23 33-100 inches; in 1846, 

 27 71-100 inches; in 1847, 16 25-100 inches, the smallest quantity that has ' 

 iallen in any year since the present century." — Gardeners' Chronicle, 1848, 

 p. 24. 



A great difference is here shown in the year 1847. In seven months of 

 that year in Salem, there fell 27 49-100 inches, when, in the whole year, 

 but 16 25-100 fell in England. 



The extreme range of the mercury, by a Fahrenheit thermometer, for 

 33 years, in Salem, Mass., latitude 42° 34', nbrth, longitude 70° 54', west, 

 was, in summer, 101° ; in winter, 13° below zero. In Philadelphia, lati- 

 tude 30° 57', longitude 75° 11', in summer, 103°; in winter, 7° below zero. 



