274 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



" Some yeai-s since, I took charge of a place where 

 there ■wore three large vineries, the grapes of which had 

 entirely failed. The vines had been planted about six 

 years. Upon examination, the borders proved to contain 

 the carcasses of thirty fat hogs, which had died of mur- 

 rain, together with the bodies of other stock. They like- 

 wise contained three or four wagon-loads of large bones, 

 and an immense quantity of woolen rags, saturated with 

 oil. Upon digging into the border, I found the soil 

 more like paste than any thing else, and the stench was 

 so dreadful that one of the men was taken ill from the 

 eifects of it. Throughout the whole of that border, I 

 found not one single fibre ; the large roots were covered 

 with canker, and several large ones were eaten completely 

 through. The foliage was very large, but sickly, the 

 wood very long-jointed and watery. I commenced 

 forcing one house of Black Hamburghs early ; the tem- 

 perature was kept low, with abundance of air ; the vines 

 broke slowly and strong, but showed scarcely any fruit, 

 generally throwing oif a tendril instead of a bunch ; the 

 other houses were also indifferent, both in flavor and 

 color, being watery, and insipid to the taste. At that 

 time, I had not made the above examination. After- 

 wards I added one third of old mortar and brick rubbish, 

 and, having well mingled the whole, I replanted the 

 vines carefully ; the result was, that, the following sea- 

 son, the wood became firmer and short-jointed, and the 

 crop improved, both in weight, fiavor, and color. — 

 E. F. G.'"* 



* E. F. G. states impossibUities ; and, to practical men, renders thereby 

 his communication wortliless, unless tliey can be accounted for as oversights 



