CHAPTER VI.

ON MANURE.

EVERY substance that enriches the soil, and stimulates the growth of plants, may be called a

manure.

As a border in which vines are to be planted ought never to be disturbed, after having been once properly made, it follows, that those manures that can be applied with advantage to promote their growth, comprehend, first, such as can be mixed and incorporated with the soil at the formation of the border, and which add to its fertility, from time to time, according to the respective periods of their decomposition and amalgamation with it; and, secondly, such as can be applied in a liquid state, or otherwise, as a top-dressing, at any subsequent period.

Of those manures, therefore, that may be mixed with the soil when the border is first made, the best are such as possess the two valuable quantities of affording to the roots of the vine, the highest degree of nourishment, combined with the greatest permanency of duration. Of this description are bones, horns and hoofs of

cattle, bone dust, the entire carcases of animals, cuttings of leather, woollen rags, feathers, and hair.

It is unnecessary to enter into a minute detail of the various properties of these manures; chemical analysis having ascertained, and experience amply proved, that all of them, as they gradually and respectively decompose, offer to the roots of plants, an abundant supply of food of the most nourishing description.

Bones, however on account of their prolonged effect, are by far the most valuable manure that can be deposited in a vine border. They should be buried in the soil whole, and as fresh as possible. Every variety of size may be procured, from the smallest bone of a fowl, to the largest bone of an ox. The small bones will decompose in a few months, but the largest will remain for twenty, thirty, and even fifty years, before they are entirely decayed, while the intermediatesized ones, according to their respective kinds, will be continually decomposing in succession for a great number of years, yielding thereby a constant supply of nutriment of the most valuable description. It is worthy of remark, also, that every bone, whether small or large, after it has been deposited in the soil a few weeks, will begin to yield, by the decomposition of the gluten on its surface, a steady supply of nutritrious matter, and continue so to do, until it be

resolved into its constituent parts, and form part of the soil itself.

Many results might be adduced, of experiments tried at various times, to ascertain the value of entire bones as manure to the roots of vines, all of which would prove, that they yield, beyond all comparison, a more permanent supply of nourishment than can be obtained from any other substance used as manure. The details of these would occupy too great a space; those of two, however, may, perhaps, be advantageously mentioned.

In the year 1826, several vines were planted against a wall having a south aspect, in a border the soil of which is a stiff clayey loam. In the following year, a quantity of bones, not more than a bushel, the largest of which was the blade bone of a calf, was digged into the border at a distance of five feet from the wall. They were deposited all together as a horizontal layer of six inches in depth, the upper surface being twelve inches, and the bottom eighteen, from the surface of the border. In the spring of 1833, the border was opened, in order to ascertain to what extent the roots of the vines were nourished by these bones. On examination it was found, that the roots had branched out in every possible direction amongst the bones, the surfaces of which were completely covered with their fibres. The blade bone happened to be in such a position,

that both sides of it could be distinctly seen, and on examining them minutely, they appeared to have every part of their surface covered with the smallest fibres imaginable; so small, indeed, were some of them, that they could scarcely be discerned by the naked eye. Their extremities were fixed on the surface of the bone, as firmly, and in the same manner as a leach when applied for the purpose of sucking blood, and they were evidently extracting by means of their mouths or pores, an abundant supply of nourishing food. From the different shades of colour apparent in many of the larger parent fibres, and other indications of annual growth, it appeared, that they had been enjoying the banquet which this bone afforded, for at least five years; and as it was but little decayed, it seemed to promise them a continuation of the feast for ten or fifteen years to come. The whole appearance of the bone was singular in the extreme, being completely enveloped in a mass of apparently beautiful gauze

net-work.

The chief part of the roots which had multiplied so prodigiously amongst these bones, was found to proceed from a single root, which had pushed itself horizontally, and in a direct line through the border till it reached the bones, throwing out in its course but few fibres, the soil being of an unfavourable nature to afford them much food. The root proceeded from a

Black Hamburgh vine, which has for several years past, produced some of the finest bearingshoots I ever saw, from which I annually obtain bunches of grapes, weighing from one to two pounds, with berries measuring from two inches and a half, to three inches, in circumference.

A similar examination of another border some years since, produced the like result. About seven years previously to my inspecting it, a few bones had been inserted in the soil, one of which, was the thigh bone of an ox. After carefully removing the top spit of the border, into which the fibres of the roots had pushed themselves pretty thickly, I discovered this bone about a foot below the surface, and about four feet distant from the stem of a vine. The hollow part which had contained the marrow, was open at both ends. On examining it, I found that a root of the vine had traversed the surface of it, in a direct line from one end to the other, throwing out an immense number of small fibres, which covered its entire convex surface. On a closer inspection, and tracing the course of the root, it appeared, that when it had reached the end of the bone, instead of pushing straight forward into the soil, it had turned down over the single thickness, entered the hollow part, and was returning through the inside of the bone, towards the same end at which it first came in contact with it. The bone was very thick, and