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When the fruit are all gathered, yor. fliould prune 

 the Vines, whereby the litter of their leaves will be 

 entirely removed at once, and their fruit will be the 

 forwarder the fucceeding year, as has been before 



obfervcd. ... 



As many of the richefi: and beft forts of Grapes will 

 not ripen in England, unlefs the feafon proves very 

 warm, or the foil and fuuatlon are very favourable, 

 there have been manv hot walls buik to accelerate 

 the ripenin- of this fruit, and bring it to full perfec- 

 tion bv artiliciat heat •, and as thefe fucceed very well 

 when 'they are properly contrived, and the Vines 

 riahtly managed, I Hiall here give proper diredtions^ 

 which, if duly attended to, will be fufficient to inftruft 



perfons in both. 



The method of building hot walls will be treated un- 

 der the article Wall, fo I fliall pafs it over in this 

 place, and proceed to the preparing of the ground for 

 planti'n^T. The borders againft theli? hot v/alls fhould 

 -have th° earth taken out two feet deep (provided the 

 ground is dry,) otherwife one foot will be fufficient, 

 becaufe in v/et land the borders {l:!0uld be raifed at 

 leaft two feet above the level of the ground, that the 

 roots of the Vines may not be injured by the wet. 

 Wlien the earth is taken out, the bottom of the trench 

 fhould be filled with ftones, lime rubbilh, &c. a foot 

 and a half, or two feet thick, which (liould be level- 

 led and beaten down pretty hard to prevent the roots 

 of the Tines from running downward. The trenches 

 fliould be made five feet wide at leaft, otherwife the 

 roots of the Vines v/ill in a few years extend them- 

 felves beyond the rubbiihi, and finding an eafy paffage 

 downwards, will run into the moiil ground, _ and 

 thereby imbibe fo much wet, as to leflen the vinous 

 flavour of the Grapes ; but before the rubbifli is filled 

 into the trench, it is a better method to raife a nine 

 inch wall, at five feet diftance from the hot wall, 

 which will keep the rubbifh from interrnixing with 

 the neighbouring earth, and alfo confine the roots of 

 the Vines to the border in which they are "planted, fo 

 that they cannot reach to tHe moifture"of the ground 

 about them. This nine inch wall fhould be raifed to 

 the height of the intended border, fo will be of great 

 ufe to lay the plate of timber of the frames upon, 

 which wilfb^ neceffary to 'cover the Vines when tftey 

 are forced^,"w1iere'6y the timbers will be better pre- 

 ferved from i-o'tting; ati'a where the borders are raifed 

 to any confiderable height above the level of the 

 _ ^round, thefe walls will preferve the earth of the 

 ■'borders from falling down into, the walks'; but in car- 

 "rytng'^up 'thefe walls, it will be proper, to leave little 

 openings about eight or ten feet diftance, 'to let the 

 water pafs off, becaufe y/hen the rubbiftiat the bot- 

 tom of the trench unites and binds very hard, the 

 ^Iter cannot eafily finda paflage'throiigh it ; there- 

 ^fore it will be the better metliod toTeave thefe fmall 



'""-j^aflages in tl - .. . _ 



confined at bottom, fhould be pent up aS in a ditch, 



■ which will be of illconfequencc to- the Vines, but 



thefe openings fhould be two feet belowthe furface. 



"When the' walls are finifhed and thorouglily dry, the 



:' Tubbifh lliould be filled in,'"^ as before direfted-' then 



'■there fhoul'd be'Trefh light earth laid upon it two feet 



^'"thicfei which "will be a Sufficient depth of foil for the 



"'"'Vines to root in.' Thefe borders- fhould be thus pre- 



•■ Wed at leaft a month or fix weeks before the Vines 



'^ are planted, that they may have time to fettle. The 



"'teft time to plant them is about the end of March, 



'■-or the beginning of April, according as the feafon 



^' pro'yes early "or late. Thefe I would alfo advife to be 



='-plantea"with cuttings, rather than rooted plants, for 



-':•%€ reafons before alTigned, but there fhould be two 



■ tdittTnss put into each hole, or placed at a nearer 



diftanceV left any of them fhould fail ; for if all fhould 



foccced, the weakeft of them may be eafily drawn 



.out the fpUowing fpring. Thefe cuttings fhould be 



- well chofen ifrom good bearing Vines, and the fhoots 



Ihould be well ripened, otherwife they will- never 



make e;ood plants. The diftance thefe Vines fhould 



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be allowed to remain is the fame as for common walls, 

 i. e. about fix feet. In planting tliem there flioiilJ 

 be holes opened with a fpade, about fourteen or fif- 

 teen inches deep, for if there be but three or four 

 inches of grood earth under th.e foot of the cuttings 

 it will be fufficient •, then the cuttings flioulj be laid in 

 the holes a little Hoping, afterward the earth Ihould be 

 filled into the holes, and gently prefied with the foot 

 to the cuttings, and raifed in a heap over them, fo as 

 juft to cover the uppermoll eyes of the cuttino-s-, 

 afterward lay a little mulch on the furface of the 

 ground about the cuttings, to prevent the fun and 

 air from drying the earth, and if the fpring fhould 

 prove very dry, they fhould have fome water once a 

 week, which will be as often as the cuttings require 

 it, for nothing will deftroy them fooner than too much 

 water, which rots their bark, and dcftroys them. If 

 thefe cuttings are well chofen, and the inftruftions 

 here laid down duly obferved, they will make ftronfT 

 flioots the firft fummer, for I have frequently planted 

 cuttings which have fliot five feet in one year, but 

 then I carefully rubbed off all the fide dangling Ihoots 

 as they were produced, and never permitted more 

 than one fhoot to remain on each cutting, which is 

 what fliould always be obfervcd by thofe who have 

 the care of Vines. With this management there will 

 be little hazard of the cuttings taking root, for in 

 upwards of five hundred cuttings which I received 

 from Italy,, and which had been cut off from the 

 Vines in the beginning of November, wrapped up 

 in Mofs, and put on board the fhip, (v/hich did not 

 arrive at the port of London until March, fo that 

 they were full four months cut ofi^ before they were 

 planted,) there were not twenty of the number which 

 failed, and many of them fhot about fix feet the firft 

 feafon. - ■ 



As I have direfted the pruning of Vines to be per- 

 formed in- autumn (which is without difpute the bed 



■ feafon for this work,) fo in pfefervirig of the cuttings 

 till the planting feafon, i have advifed them to be cue 



. to their lengths, and their end's laid into the ground, 

 and then covered with litter or Mofs to keep the air 



' from them ; 'but fjnce I have found it a much better 

 method not to Ihorten the fhoots, from which the 



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■ cuttings are to be made, but to lay their ends juft iiv 

 ^ to the ground, about two inches deep, and fo leave 

 '"them at full length, only obferving to cover them 



with dry litter or Peas haulm in frofly dry weather, 



tho' in moift weather the covering fliould not remain 



on, becaufe it would make the cuttings grow mouldy, 



; which would greatly injure them/ Then in the fpring, 



-when they are to be planted, tHey fliould be taken out 



" of the ground, "and their upper part cut off, fo as to- 



■ reduce them' to" about fourteen inches in length, ac- 

 '- cording to the diftance of the buds or eyes ; for thofe 



cuttings whofe buds grow pretty clofe together, need 

 hot be left more than one foot long, but in others 

 fourteen or fixteen inches will be full fhort. The 

 leaving the upper part of the flioots on all the winter 

 is of great fervicc to the cuttings, becaufe when they 

 are cut off in autumn', the air penetrates the wound- 



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' edpart, and greatly injures the other eyes. ; ---^ . 



-^ The rnanagement of thefe Vines, for the three firft 



.* years after planting, being the fame as is practifed 



- for thofe againft common walls, I Ihall not Vepeat it 

 in this place, having fully treated of thataTready -, 

 only will obferve, that during ttiefe three years, the 

 Vines fhould be encouraged as much as pbGlble, and 



■ the fhoots not left too Ibng, nor too many in number 

 • on each root, that they may be duly ripened and pre- 

 pared for bearing the fourth year, which is the foon- 



■ eft they fhould be forced; for when any forts of fruit- 

 ■ trees are forced by fire too young, they feldom con- 

 tinue long in health, fo that what fruit they produce 



' is fmall, and hot well-flavoured •, therefore, in bang 



■ over 'hafty to fave "ayear or two," very often the whole 



- defign^mifcarrie^i'fof unlefs the trees are in a proper 



- condition tobSaf nluch fruit, it is not worth while ro 

 ^-' make fires^ for a fmall quantity of ftarved ill-taucd 



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