OF THE VINE. 



47 



with vegetable mould from decayed leaves, make 

 an excellent compost for most kind of plants that 

 grow in pots. 



After having specified various kinds of manures 

 that are known to be friendly to the Vine, it may 

 not be improper to mention some others that seem 

 to be hurtful and inimical to it 5 . Soot, wood- 

 ashes, pigeon and hen's dung, wxmld all, I think, 

 be too hot for the root of the Vine. These, if 

 you please to consider, are manures that come im- 

 mediately into action ; and, therefore, are more 

 properly calculated for top-dressing, and to enliven 

 the surface, than to be buried at the roots in the 

 ground below. Pond-mud and moor-earth would 

 probably, on the contrary, be too cold for that 



closures, which, formerly, were only separated by ditches, tc* 

 the great benefit, as well as ornament, of the country. 



My own eyes have been witnesses of the above curious and 

 important fact ; and I have a brother, who, at this day, occu- 

 pies a farm in that country, and still pursues this mode of 

 practice. 



1 " And here the nature of the land should be maturely con- 

 sidered, for we should endeavour, by all means, to detect, as 

 far as we are able, the quality predominant, both of the earth 

 we should improve, and the compost we apply, and not throw 

 them promiscuously upon every thing, without considering of 

 what temper and constitution they be, for grounds are as nice 

 as our bodies, and as obnoxious to infirmities upon every defect 

 and excess ; and, therefore, it requires skill and no little study 

 to be able rightly to marshal this materia medica (as I may call 

 it) of composts, the virtue of which does, sometimes,, lie very 

 hidden." Evelyns Terra, p. 5<k 



