THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 275 



" With reference to manuring, a friend has lately com- 

 municated to us the following interesting memoran- 

 dum : — 



" When I visited the vineyards of Frontignan, I was 

 much struck with the exceeding tenderness and crispness 



That the editor of the Chronicle should have thought the article of value, 

 must have been because it favored his opinion relative to the use of carrion ; 

 and he could not have given it a careful perusal : if he did, he overlooked 

 the result of such reasoning. You might, with as much propriety, say that 

 bone-dust, guano, poudrette, or any chemical combination, was bad and un- 

 suitable as manure for the vine, because it would not flourish if planted in 

 them, simply, or with only a small proportion of soil. According to E. F. G., 

 " here was a mass of thirty fat hogs, and other bodies besides, (how many 

 he does not say,) three or four wagon-loads of large bones, and an immense 

 quantity of woolen rags saturated with oil." (This last article of oil, unless 

 used in the compost heap, and entirely decomposed before it is used, !.■', 

 perhaps, the worst poison that can be applied to the roots of fruit trees, of 

 all kinds.) Upon digging into it, according to his account, it was a mass 

 of putrid matter, which would as surely destroy all hfe in the root of tlie 

 vine which came within its reach, as 13re would destroy life in the animal, 

 if surrounded thereby. In fact, it was a compost heap, piled above the 

 roots of the vine. (The vines had been planted six years ; this heap of 

 matter could not have been put there at that time ; for, even in England, 

 two years is sufficient for the mass to have been changed.) What practical 

 gardener would think of planting his vines in such materials ? Compare 

 this mass of putrid matter with the soil, as recommended by Mr. Roberts ; 

 how very unlike they are I 



" Throughout the whole of the border, he found not one single fibre, and 

 the large roots were cankered, and some of them eaten through." He does 

 not state by what the roots were eaten ; whether by worms, produced in 

 this putrefaction, or by the canker. This is just the condition tlie roots 

 might be supposed to be in, that is, dead. It is impossible to cause a root 

 of the vine to Uve in such matter, during decomposition. Thus far, there 

 is reason in what E. E. G. says, as to the condition of the border, and the 

 state of the roots of the vines growing therein. But when he states " that 

 the foliage was very large, but sickly ; the wood very long-jointed and 

 watery," we cannot agree with him ; it cannot be ; B. F. G. must have 

 overlooked some important fact ; the roots of the vine could not, without 

 apong-ioles and rootlets innumerable, produce this long-jointed wood, with 



