60 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ March, 
therefore, here also a due balance must be maintained. The best of 
borders may be nullified by bad management inside, and the best of 
management may be baffled by bad borders, so that it would appear that 
it is to the proper construction of the borders that we must look, in the 
first place, for a correction of the evil. I do not intend in this place to 
enlarge upon the component parts and proportions of the constituents of 
the border, but shall content myself with stating a few of the leading 
principles which should influence the merely practical part of the question. 
The materials of which a border for the culture of Vines should be 
composed, ought always to be selected with especial reference to the 
amount of water which they are calculated to hold in position, when 
subjected to its action. All soils are not alike in their capacity for 
retaining water ; some will hold a much greater quantity than others, and 
as a rule those which retain but a moderate proportion will be the most 
suitable. The former, indeed, being often the strongest, may be possessed 
of more intrinsic fertility, whilst the chief merit of the other is that it is 
of an open and porous nature. There is therefore no reason why the 
stronger soil should not be used if desired; because, by the judicious 
admixture of other substances which are calculated to open up the texture, 
the necessary porosity may be secured in the whole bulk, so that when 
pressed down with tolerable firmness it will not become a soddened mass, 
but, on the contrary, will be sufficiently elastic to spring partly back when 
the pressure is removed. With such a compost, and a thoroughly efficient 
drainage, there need be no fear of wet, cold, and water-logged borders. 
Borders formed with a view to openness of texture, and freedom from 
stagnant moisture, will, under any circumstances of external temperature 
whatever, be always found warmer than such as run close together, and 
hold much water; and this is a great point gained. Then, again, the roots 
will be able to penetrate through the mass and obtain nourishment freely, 
without being pulled up short, and their progress barred by cold water. 
Moreover, when rich top-dressings come to be applied to these well-prepared 
borders—which, we may observe in passing, is an excellent thing to be 
done, when there is an extra demand for food—they are in the proper 
condition to take immediate advantage of them, because the roots are in 
full action and ready for anything good; but, on the contrary, in ill-drained 
and soapy borders, such applications often only make bad worse. 
Now, the production of roots on the stems of forced Vines is a matter 
of very secondary importance, taken per se, but it becomes important as an 
indication of a condition of things which is likely to act far more 
inimically in other ways ; and in seeking out a. remedy for the one, we shall 
most likely find that the means are such as will appeal to our reason as 
those most likely to act beneficially in the case of other unhealthy indications. 
