MY VINEYARD. 127 



but kind and quantity should be considered. A giant 

 may eat largely of bacon and find it agreeable, but a 

 dwarf might get the dyspepsia. The cultivated vine is a 

 dwarf, as you may know h^ comparing it with a wild one. 

 This is one reason why greater care must be exercised 

 with the quality and quantity of its food than is necessary 

 with most plants. Other reasons have been elsewhere 

 given. Give your vines food ; if there be not enough al- 

 ready in the soil, then supply it. But do not give too 

 much ; and be sure the quality is right. 



SrruATioH' — This is of first importance. It matters not 

 how great skill may be employed, a vineyard can not be 

 successful unless nature has made the situation favorable. 

 Still, a few vines may be grown by most any one who has 

 a house. But a vineyard as one's employment, and a few 

 vines for the gratification of one's self and family, are 

 quite different things. 



PEEPAEATioBr OF SoiL. — ^This is of second importance. 

 The different processes of preparation are arranged accord- 

 ing to relative importance in this way. Fineness of tilth ; 

 underdraining ; subsoiling. There must positively be 

 fineness of tilth, else the roots beconSe exhausted in clamb- 

 ering over and around big lumps in search of food. On 

 the other band, if the soil be the least wet, there can be 

 no fineness of tilth without underdraining, so that the soil 

 may become dry. The one is a corollary of the other. 

 The truth is, all the important processes of grape 'culture, 



