COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. 



17 



when the net may be removed; and, the sheep and 

 deer being the judges, it will be by far the most 

 esteemed portion of the park for many years. 



After this digression, let us suppose that the neces- 

 sary quantity of suitable loam has been obtained, neither 

 clay nor sand being in excess of what has been indicat- 

 ed, and that it has been stacked for six months, so that 

 the grass is dead and the whole mass dry. Then let it 

 be cut down with a spade, and broken up with one of 

 Park's five-tined forks in preference to the spade, and 

 thrown into a ridge, taking care to have it kept so that 

 a tarpaulin or some other cover can be thrown over it 

 to keep it dry. To ten carts of this soil add two of lime- 

 rubbish — old plaster is preferable, as it contains hair, 

 itself a good manure ; one cart of thoroughly charred 

 wood, including any wood-ashes that may be amongst 

 it ; one cart of fresh horse-droppings ; 4 cwt. of broken 

 bones, about one inch square ; and, if to be had, 2 cwt. 

 of horn-shavings may be added. Have the whole mass 

 turned over several times, but always in dry, if possible 

 frosty, weather, before it is wheeled in to form the bor- 

 der. This I can guarantee, from my own experience, 

 will form a safe and fruitful vine-border ; the addition 

 of more manure might give stronger canes for a few 

 seasons, but they would be much more liable to suffer 

 from excess of wet in winter; and when it is considered 

 how easy it is to feed the roots of the vine with liquid 

 manure at the seasons when it is most required, I can 

 see no reason, but the opposite, in favour of making 

 vine-borders so rich as some advocate. When the soil 

 is what is termed clayey loam, I would add the same 

 ingredients to it, with the addition of two cart-loads to 

 the ten of burned clay, which acts as a mechanical dis- 

 integrant, and keeps the particles of clay from getting 



B 



