THE CULTURE OP THE GRAPE. 173 



dung, sheep's dung, sheep's urine, drainings of a common 

 dunghill, vegetable mould, a compost in which warm, 

 dry elements rather preponderate, a little hog's blood, or 

 bullock's blood, or the general offal of a slaughter-house, 

 with a qualifying portion of lime, or shell marl, fresh 

 loam, and sharp sand. AVhether it be a fluid mauure, 

 or part of the old earth be dug out and a compost sub- 

 stituted, the application is chiefly to be made at the ex- 

 tremity of the roots. The roots of old plants, in a yield- 

 ing soil, are sometimes found to have traveled to a won- 

 derful distance in quest of nourishment." 



In preparing the border for forcing, this author says 

 the materials and proportions should be of " top spit 

 sandy loam from an upland pasture, one third part ; un- 

 exhausted brown loam from a garden, one fourth part; 

 scrapings of roads, free from clay, and repaired with 

 gravel or siate, one sixth part; vegetable mould, or old 

 .tan reduced to earth, or old stable manure, one sixth 

 part ; shell marl, or mild lime, one twelfth part. From 

 the time the buds rise, until the fruit is set, manure the 

 border, once in ten days, with the drainings of the dung- 

 hill, poured over the roots of the plants. 



" The border should be kept, at all times, clear from 

 weeds. When it is necessary to recruit the soil, work in 

 such a compost as has been described, or similar. The 

 dung out of a cow-house, perfectly rotted, is a fine ma- 

 nure for the vine." 



Forsyth, in his book on the Culture of Fruit Trees, 

 says that " the best manure for vines is a mixture of ve- 

 getable mould, rotten dung, and fresh loam turf; and all 

 this should be thrown in a heap, and frequently turned, 



