4 



A TREATISE ON THE 



prepared, suffer this mixture to lie in a heap for a month or two 

 before using it, and let it be occasionally turned, so that it may 

 become thoroughly amalgamated. It will be necessary to give it 

 some shelter from the drencliing rain, either in an open shed, or 

 other convenient protection, not excluding it from the action of 

 the air. 



In spreading the border with the sods, and also with the above 

 compost, great care must be taken to avoid trampling it, which 

 can be done by laying a plank down for the workman^s footsteps. 

 By so doing the sods will be preserved in theij; rough unbroken 

 state, which is most desirable ; and the whole border will settle 

 gradually of itself, and the surface will be smooth and even. In 

 preparing this compost, take care to have plenty, so that there 

 may be a reserve in case of casualties ; you are thus certain of 

 having precisely the same mixture, if it should be required, which 

 would be preferable in all respects to a strange compost being 

 added. The border, when entirely completed, should remain un- 

 disturbed a week or ten days, and in the course of that time it 

 will, doubtless, settle down more or less ; and if it be found to 

 have sunk below the desired level, it can easily be raised with a 

 little of the superabundant compost. 



As the health and fruitfulness of all vegetable productions 

 mainly depend on the state of the roots, it must be evident that 

 no crop can arrive at perfection unless they be in good order; 

 consequently it wiU at once be seen how necessary it must be to 

 supply them with whatever is most congenial to them. Now, as 

 scarcely any two sorts of fruit-trees thrive equally well in one and 

 the same compost, I am (in order to make the necessary distinc- 

 tion) the more particular in endeavouring to point out, as clearly 

 as I can, the method and soil which I have, in the course of my 

 experience, found to answer best for the growth of grapes ; and 

 having completed these directions for making the border, it may 

 be as well, before proceeding with the planting, to offer a few 

 general remarks on the different kinds of grapes most worthy of 

 cultivation. 



