116 THE GARDENER. [March 



strength of a cane is no test whatever of its fitness to become a thriving 

 permanent \'me. However, I would not reject a cane on account of its 

 strength, providing it possessed what I consider other essential qualities; 

 that is, a number (the more the better) of well-ripened roots. The 

 roots require ripening as much as the canes. When they are not 

 ripened the result will be as described by Mr Thomson ; nine-tenths 

 of them, unless specially protected, will perish during the winter. 

 Eyes should be plump and large in proportion to the strength of the 

 canes ; the latter thoroughly ripened, short-jointed, and exhibiting a 

 small proportion of pith. AVhen these conditions are present, be the 

 thickness of the cane what it may, it presents to the cultivator a sound 

 subject to begin with. 



I will now give a short account of a set of twelve Vines which I 

 planted some years since, nine of which were raised as follows : The 

 first week in January the eyes were put into a box filled with a com- 

 post similar to that used for striking Geraniums and other soft- wooded 

 l^lants, and placed on a shelf near the glass in the propagating-pit. 

 When they had made roots 2 inches long they were carefully trans- 

 ferred without injury to the roots into 9-inch pots, the pots being care- 

 fully drained and filled with a compost consisting of one-half road- 

 scrapings and one-half chopped turf that had lain for about eight 

 months in a heap. No manure of any description was used. They 

 were kept in the propagating-pit for eight days, when they were re- 

 moved to the front stage of a light span-roofed compartment, where the 

 temperature averaged about GO''. Here they remained until they had 

 finished their growth ; no stopping of either leading shoots or laterals 

 was resorted to, there being a sufficiency of room for them to develop 

 themselves in. At the end of the season they had made leaders from 

 7 to 9 feet long, and ripe to almost the very points, with fine plump 

 eyes ; but the thickest portion of any of the canes did not measure over 

 J of an inch in circumference. 



The following spring, to make up the required number, three Vines 

 were ordered from a first-class nursery. On their arrival our home 

 growth looked small indeed by the side of the new-comers. 



The border, &c., being in readiness to receive the plants, they were 

 turned out of the pots and the soil washed from their roots. This 

 operation gave ns the best possible means of seeing the difference 

 between the roots of the respective canes. Those of the new-comers 

 were few in number, but of considerable length, free from fibres, they 

 having disappeared in the process of washing. 



The home-grown canes exhibited a mass of small fibrous roots hard 

 in texture, and few of them over 3 feet in length. Now for results. 

 All received exactly the same treatment. The purchased canes, so far 



