THE CULTUEE OF THE GRAPE. 245 



what surprised to find we were not a firm belie-fer in the 

 great eS.ca.cj of the very richest ingredients, such as 

 dead animals, for the formation of the border, and some 

 have been almost disposed to doubt whether our own 

 success was not efiected by some such aid, contrary to 

 our statement. To the former, we need only remark, 

 that we are more and more convinced, that the employ- 

 ment of the carcasses of animals is of no benefit what- 

 ever, but rather an injury in the end ; and, to the latter, 

 we shall merely state that, whatever practice we recom- 

 mend, we invariably a^opt, until experience assures us 

 that it is founded in error. 



" The subject of the preparation of vine borders has 

 recently attracted considerable attention in England, and 

 various communications have appeared, in some of the 

 gardening periodicals, in relation to the practice of using 

 the carcasses of dead animals. This discussion has taken 

 place in consequence of the publication of a small, but 

 excellent little work, of only eighty or ninety pages, upon 

 the culture of the grape, by Mr. Roberts, a very success- 

 ful cultivator. Probably, few copies of the volume have 

 ever found their way here, in consequence of the high 

 price at which it was published. We, however, received 

 a copy when it first appeared, and read it with much 

 interest, and came to the same conclusion as Dr. Lindley, 

 whose article we are about to notice, that it was one of 

 the most thorough, practical, and common-sense treatises 

 which we had ever read, and, saving its recommendation 

 of the ' pabulum'* of dead animals, to produce the 



* A substance affordir g nourishment. 



