SOIL FOR GRAPES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1098, 11 July 1882, Page 4

SOIL FOR GRAPES.

Table grapes and wine grapes require different sorts of soil. The followin'" notes from recent descriptions of the soil in some of the famous wine districts may prove of value to viticulturitst. In Medoc the soil is light grave ; often a mere heap of quartz pebbles’ mixed with sand; some of it is sandy on the surface, underlaid with silicious Savel; some is limestone pebbles restg on shelly linestone aud marly clay. Soils when elay prevails are the poorest In the Burgundy district the soil varies as follows : Clay, with lime and iron, resting on alluvium; magnesian limestone and iron ; colilic slate overlaid by soil which has iron and silex ; limo and marl for a subsoil. About Rheims and Epernay the subsoil is chalk, and the thin surface soil is carbonate of lime, clay, silica aud iron. The Johannieberg soil is a red clav and coarse gravel with considerable iron. Here as elsewhere among the noted wine districts the best vineyards are on what seems the poorert’ soil. The vines are planted closer then in California. The yield per acre ranges from 150 to 250 gallons pci - year.— San Francisco Bulletin.