1 87 1.] VINES AND VINE-BORDERS. 5 



but they are away a yard from the surface, and when let out, com- 

 mence their march across the border at such a depth as deprives them 

 of the genial influences of heat and air. So much for what we learn 

 from an examination of the old Vines and their border. 



I will now, founding on much experience, suggest what the Vines 

 may have been like when planted. They were probably what are styled 

 in the advertisements of the present day, " fine strong planting canes," 

 and to the comparatively inexperienced they appeared all they were re- 

 presented, but a critical examination proved that they were as pithy as 

 a rush. They had no well-plumped firm eyes, and when turned out of 

 their pots, it was discovered that they were grown in rich soil, half 

 dung in fact, that they had been grown in bottom-heat, and that 

 many of the roots formed under such circumstances had decayed when 

 exposed to a degree of cold that would do no injury to a properly- 

 grown Vine. They have been raised from eyes in small pots, where they 

 remained till their tap-roots had made several journeys round the 

 inside of the pot, when they were transferred to a 9 or 10 inch pot, 

 to finish their growth and make several more coils round it. Another 

 aspect of their treatment in early youth was that they were grown as 

 near each other in a close moist atmosphere as beans in a field, their 

 foliage never getting properly exposed to light and air. I by no 

 means blame nurserymen for growing them thus, while the vine- 

 buying public expect to get "fine strong planting canes for 3s. 6d., 

 and fine fruiting ditto at 5s." The thing is simply impossible at the 

 present rate of labour and other appliances, including the space the 

 Vines would require to grow them properly. This is a real case of 

 sinking the ship to save a pennyworth of tar. 



I may here remark that I observe another delusion springing up at 

 the present day about Vines for planting. I refer to advertisements 

 setting forth that the subscribers can supply young Vines grown tolth- 

 out the aid of artificial heat — as if this were likely to add to their value, 

 when the reverse is the case. No Vine should be planted that is more 

 than a year old from an eye, and to get such well grown and ripened 

 in the climate of Britain requires more or less fire-heat. Such being 

 the Vines, let us turn them out of their pots and proceed to plant 

 them. The roots that have survived are twisted and entangled in all 

 directions, and by the time the leading roots are disengaged from the 

 ball, there are no small laterals left on them ; but they are a good 

 length, and when spread out reach a long way across the border. 

 While the stored-up sap in the Vine and roots lasts, progress in growth 

 is made for a short time ; and after a halt, young roots start from the 

 points of the old extended roots, and, if the border has all been made 

 up at once, get rapidly on with their journey across it. 



