THE VINE. 



281 



floor, and leading into a main drain with a good 

 outlet. 



The material for drainage should consist of 

 three grades, the coarsest and largest to go in 

 the bottom, the medium-sized next, and lastly 

 the finer to finish off with. This 

 may consist of brickbats, burrs from 

 brick-yards, or sandstone; but what- 

 ever material is used, it must be 

 clean and durable. The rougher 

 portions of the drainage should be 

 placed in position by hand, and 

 the whole mass, when finished, 

 should slope slightly towards the 

 front, and be covered with whole 

 turves, the grass-side downwards. 



Soil. — To produce heavy crops 

 of fruit the soil must be rich, and 

 to prevent the roots from suffering 

 from cold or drought it should be 

 made up of materials not likely to 

 become close and retentive of mois- 

 ture. A rich, turfy, fibrous loam is 

 the principal constituent, the fibre 

 in which is of such a nature that 

 it will not soon rot. Loams vary 

 very much in texture, and ft is not 

 always possible to obtain that which 

 is best suited to the growth of the 

 Vine. A loam of poor quality may 

 be fortified by adding burnt soil, 

 wood ashes, road sidings, road 

 scrapings, and J-inch bones. Heavy 

 loams are improved by the addi- 

 tion of lime rubble, which ensures 

 the requisite degree of porosity. A 

 medium-heavy, fibrous loam should 

 be prepared as follows: — First 

 chop the turves into rough-sized 

 pieces; add a fair percentage of 

 charcoal or wood ashes and burnt 

 soil, and as much lime-rubble as 

 will keep the whole mass open for 

 the free percolation of water. For 

 manure use 1 cwt. of -^-inch bones 

 and the same quantity of bone- 

 meal to every ton of soil. Farm- 

 yard and stable manure should be 

 avoided. The whole should be thoroughly in- 

 corporated by turning it twice, leaving it in a 

 ridge-shaped heap to ward off rain. Eather 

 than allow the compost to become saturated it 

 is better to cover it with tarpaulins or shutters. 

 This work should be done in dry weather. 



Planting. — This may be performed either in 

 the autumn or spring, the latter being on the 



whole preferable. The Vine should be pre- 

 pared for planting by cutting it back to within 

 6 or 12 inches of the soil or base, and early 

 enough in the season to prevent bleeding. 

 When the buds have started about half an 



Vine prepared for planting. 



inch or so, planting should be done as follows: 

 — Open out a hole wide enough to allow of the 

 roots being spread outwards from the stem, and 

 so deep that when it is filled in the stem will 

 be about 1 inch deeper than it was in the pot. 

 Disentangle the roots after washing the soil 

 from them in a bucketful of tepid water, as 

 shown in fig. 1065, then lay them out carefully 



