THE CULTURE OF THE GBAPE. 265 



used, he says, but then you are to mix it with shells and 

 broken pebbles, the object of which is to secure the con- 

 stant openness of the soil. 



" On the other hand, Chaptal, the best French writer 

 on the vine, discourages the use of manure. 



" ' The same reasons,' he says, ' may be used against the 

 system of the vine growers . of the north, who think it 

 advantageous to manure their vines. By this means, 

 indeed, they obtain larger crops, and more wine, but it 

 is of bad quality, it will not keep ; and its smell often 

 reminds one, when dranh, of the disgusting substances 

 which produced it. Manure communicates to the vine 

 too much nourishment. The nutritious juice, reduced to 

 gas, and received by the mouths of the capillary roots, 

 and by the air-vessels of the leaves, penetrates and circu- 

 lates in the sap-vessels, forms the wood of the plant, and 

 furnishes the substance out of which the shoots, leaves, 

 flowers, and fruit are developed ; the more abundant the 

 nutritive matter, the more the diameter of the vessels dis- 

 tends, the more rapid is the circulation of the sap, be- 

 cause the channels through which it passes have more 

 capacity. This causes the sap to circulate in a less state 

 of elaboration, the result of which must be, that the wine 

 is flat, insipid, and destitute of all the principles of alco- 

 hol. Nevertheless, the abundant crop thus obtained, am.d 

 the brilliant vegetation, are, after all, in some measure 

 deceptive, foe they can be but teansitoey. In vine- 

 yards where manuring is practised, they only manure once 

 in ten years. It is not to be doubted, that the efi'ect is 

 very remarkable the first three or four years after the 

 manuring of the vines, but, in the succeeding yewrs, the 

 12 



