96 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t A u g u.t 3, mbs. 
others, and that is that foremost among the substances re¬ 
quired by Vines, whether to supply the wants of the fruit 
or of the Vines, is potash, and next to potash lime, then 
phosphoric acid. 
MANURES. 
Having found what Vines require as food from the soil, and 
what kind of soil at once promotes the formation of proper 
roots and retains best the salts and gases of the manures we 
apply, we will next inquire what is usually applied as manures. 
Lime .—We notice lime first because it is most easily dis¬ 
posed of. Lime is universally applied to soiL, and Vine borders 
generally have their full share—at least when these are first 
made. Nevertheless, it is quite probable, and even tolerably 
certain, that not enough is given afterwards. Repeated and 
effectual waterings of the borders tend to carry the lime in 
the borders out of the soil and into the drains, and so in time 
the soil, even soils naturally limy, becomes deficient in this 
essential plant food. Lime, again, is particularly valuable in 
keeping soil sweet, or even in purifying it when sourness 
already exists, and there need be no fear of excessive liming, 
for even when present in large quantities, comparatively speak¬ 
ing, it will not hurt Vines, but the reverse. Bearing this fact 
in mind I give lime to the soil when making up the borders, 
and occasionally afterwards in winter time sprinkle a dusting 
over the borders inside and out to keep the soil sweet, and 
that the Vines may not lack lime in their food. 
Phosphoric Acid .—After lime we place phosphoric acid, not 
because that Vines require it in greater quantity than anything 
else, or in even so great an abundance, but because the majority 
treat their Vines as if they did. 
After lime bones are generally applied in rather large quanti¬ 
ties for the reason often given, that bones are a lasting manure, 
and the fact of their being lasting leads not a few to make 
bones the only manurial substance applied when the borders 
are made—a practice we are very far from condemning, 
although their application may altogether be dispensed with 
without the border being thereby any less fit to produce full 
crops of Grapes. Whether bones should be applied either 
when the borders are made, or afterwards as top-dressings of 
bonemeal annually, as some do, or not at all, wholly depends 
on the means to be afterwards adopted to keep a proper supply 
of phosphoric acid within reach of the roots. As we are going 
into details somewhat it may be as well, for the sake of your 
younger readers, to say that bones in a fresh state are made up 
of phosphate of lime or bone earth and organic matter, which 
is rich in nitrogen, and which when decaying in the soil form 
ammonia, to the action of which the first effect of bonemeal, 
when applied to grass land or vegetable crops, is due. The 
bone earth (it differs in different animals) contains about 40 per 
cent, of phosphoric acid, generally 55 per cent, of lime with 
traces of magnesia. 
After Vine borders are made up and the Vines growing and 
bearing they are generally “helped'' with top-dressings, but 
more especially with liquid manure. It may be fairly stated 
that 90 per cent, use guano alone in making liquid manure, 
while not a few use sheep and deer droppings. These waters 
applied to plants that are growing in exhausted soil, but other¬ 
wise healthy, produce an instantaneous and wonderful increase 
of vigour, which has led many to use such when better material 
was running to waste at their hand. The value of such liquid 
manures depends very largely, their immediate effect almost 
wholly, on the nitrogen they contain, and after the nitrogen as 
it exists in ammonia or nitrates to phosphoric acid, although 
potash is also present. Still guanos (they differ largely),gene¬ 
rally speaking, owe their value chiefly to the bone-earth and 
nitrogen they contain, so that the use of bones and guanos 
chiefly, or even largely, does not meet the demand of the Vines 
for potash. It is true very fine Grapes have been grown 
by the use of these alone, but not economically, for when 
potash is supplied in sufficient quantities by the use of guano 
there must be a very great waste of valuable and costly phos¬ 
phates and nitrogen. 
With the idea of furnishing potash to the Vines wood ashes 
have been very much recommended of late years, and will no 
doubt be largely used by many. Potash as it exists in wmod 
ashes is easily soluble, and even in good holding loam dis¬ 
appears rather quickly when only supplied in this form when 
the borders are made. Used in moderation as top-dressing 
either annually or biennially they are more likely to do good ; 
but I would here remark that not only is potash thus applied 
liable to disappear quickly, but it is a popular fallacy to 
suppose that wood ashes—unless, indeed, it be Vine wood— 
are particularly rich in potash. Doubtless a few woods leave 
ashes rich in potash, but a very much greater number furnish 
lime chiefly. When we have to apply 100 lbs. of ashes in 
order to furnish 5 lbs., 10 lbs., or even 15 lbs. of potash, there 
is, I apprehend, no small danger of overloading the soil with 
matters not wmnted. At the same time, while uttering this 
warning note, I do not condemn their use, for lime and other 
matters may be thus furnished economically, and it is cer¬ 
tainly better to use the refuse of a burning heap to furnish this 
than to spend money buying it elsewhere and allowing that at 
the door to waste. Economically and safely it can only be 
applied in small quantities. When applied for the sake of 
the potash they contain only, it is better to wash the soluble 
matter out and apply the water, or to sprinkle the ashes on 
the border and allow the salts to be bleached in with the rains 
or watered-in, afterwards removing the refuse. 
Top-dressings generally consist of animal droppings or merely 
ordinary stableyard manure half decayed. Such will yield all 
the different compounds the Vines require, including potash ; 
but as a matter of fact most of the mineral matter is in the 
straw and is removed with it, for it is only when the whole 
becomes altogether decayed that the mineral matter is available 
for food, and this is the reason why in farming one manuring 
is found sufficient for a four or a six-course rotation. Top- 
dressings, as we have said, are generally removed before they 
become so decayed as to form part of the soil, and I think this 
is well, for nothing so speedily makes a healthy loam inert as 
large quantities of decayed manure mixed with it. This evil 
I believe exists in nine out of every ten cases of old Vine 
borders, and when it happens the surface ought to be bodily 
removed and replaced with healthy material. Top-dressings 
are in our opinion more valuable as conservers of moisture and 
for encouraging roots upwards than for the actual food they 
supply. 
We use urine with a view to maintaining an abundant supply 
of potash. That from the stables and cow houses supplies us 
with an inexhaustible store. Rich in potash, it is also rich in 
many other foods, and chief among these we may mention 
ni f rogen compounds. If is this chiefly which makes guano 
valuable. Of course urine contains no phosphoric acid, but in 
borders containing the usual amount of bones a further supply 
of phosphoric acid is hardly needed. I used bones rather 
sparingly for two good reasons, one being that we have a tank 
filled always with sewage water, and that everybody knows is 
peculiarly rich in phosphoric acid. This sewage water is very 
weak, and I consider it to be of just about the same value of 
equally weak guano water. In times of drought we have often 
no other water, and I never hesitate to use it freely and with 
first-rate results. This is used in summer, the urine is used in 
winter. One thousand pounds of cow’s urine contain some¬ 
where about 40 lbs. of potash salts, say 20 lbs. of potash. 
Twenty pounds of potash is more than an ordinary houseful 
of Vines will use in a long time. This quantity is contained 
in half a ton of pure urine, or from four to five times as 
much as is contained in half a ton of ordinary stableyard ma¬ 
nure. The reason it is used in winter is that it may be applied 
pure when the roots are resting without injuring them. This 
1 have proved beyond the possibility of a doubt. The appli¬ 
cation of half a ton of liquid manure to a border is a small 
task compared with applying 3 tons, and when applied in sum¬ 
mer it is not even safe when diluted to that extent. Moreover, 
as we have already said, it occasionally happens that the only 
water available here in summer is liquid manure. But above 
all, urine is not fit for plant food in a fresh state. The potash 
is bound up chemically with lactic, hippuric, and sulphuric 
acids, and these salts are better when allowed to soak into 
lumps of loam or clay, and become changed into the car¬ 
bonate, in which state the roots readily and with benefit use it. 
Again, the urea which is in the urine also changes for the 
better, first to ammonia and then to nitric acid, in which states 
