62 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



be allowed as to the necessity of draining as has been 

 directed. I have never seen vines do well in wet, and 

 as a consequence cold borders, and know of instances 

 where wet and unproductive borders have been ren- 

 dered fruitful by perfect drainage. Although the vine 

 in a growing state requires much moisture, it will not 

 put up with stagnant water at any season. 



BOEUEES — THEIE COMPOSITION. 



In forming borders for the cultivation of grapes, greater 

 regard should be directed towards the maintenance of 

 vines in such a condition as is likely to yield satisfactory 

 crops for a lengthened period of time, than to the pro- 

 duction of larger bunches with perhaps less certainty for 

 a few years, to be followed by a general and rapid decline 

 in the constitution of the vines, and, as a necessary con- 

 sequence, in the amount and quality of the crops they 

 bear. That such different results are to a very great 

 extent indeed dependent on the mechanical and manurial 

 state of the soil, is a fact that cannot fail to have become 

 perfectly obvious to those who have studied the growth 

 of the vine in borders of opposite characters and compo- 

 sition. That the vine will continue in a healthy bearing 

 state for a greater length of time under favourable circum- 

 stances than almost any other fruit-bearing plant or tree, 

 is abundantly proved by the fact that of many of the same 

 varieties that are cultivated in this country, there are in 

 France and Italy whole vineyards, now in full bearing, 

 which were in the same condition three centuries ago. 

 And in this country there are instances of vines now 

 bearing well in vineries that were planted some eighty, 

 and others more than a hundred, years ago. I lately in- 



