1S70.] THOUGHTS ABOUT GRAPE - GROWING. 151 



that bad management had caused the premature death of his Vines, 

 grown as single rods. Another authority reads a paper at a horticul- 

 tural congress on the evil effects of soil taken from the magnesian 

 limestone, and demonstrates unmistakably that he has failed to satisfy 

 himself with Grape crops from such a soil ; and lo ! clear as appears 

 to be his own proposition to himself, yet another authority labours to 

 show that Vines and other fruit-trees thrive to the greatest perfection 

 in the very soil the other so forcibly condemns. This second writer 

 treats us northern bodies to a piece of news (in order to prove the fal- 

 lacy of the one-rod or restrictive system, and to uphold the extension 

 theory), by telling us that a set of celebrated Vines in Galloway had 

 fallen into a sad plight, notwithstanding the very wonderful influence 

 of aeration. This arouses another combatant, suffering from some symp- 

 toms of the Vine-decline epidemic ; and he shouts a cross the borders, 

 Goliath-like, to the cultivator of the supposed-to-be-deceased Vines, to 

 let him know that his Vines are " nae deed," but "all a-growing, all 

 a-blowing ; " and that by means of a current of wind carried through 

 below their roots, the Vines would be made to absorb so much gas as 

 would enable them to produce splendid bunches of Grapes. 



Turning to the question of pruning, another advocates the cut-to- 

 the-best bud, or cow-horn system. This the next combatant repudiates, 

 and maintains that the neatest Vines and most useful bunches are pro- 

 duced by the close-spurring system. I knew of a smart English prac- 

 tical gardener coming down to the banks of the Clyde to take charge 

 of a garden, and his neighbour found him in his vinery one morning 

 cutting off all the long spurs from the Vines that had for years been 

 cow-horned, and, of course, leaving not a bud to be depended on. 

 " This," the operator said to his neighbour — " this is what we call 

 spurring in the south ;" and got for reply, "By George ! and it's spur- 

 ring in the north too." And so the two systems are still adhered to, 

 and upheld as correct by their respective advocates. 



About the growth and action of roots the manifestoes are quite as 

 uncertain ; one insists that growth first commences in the branches, 

 another maintains that the roots start into growth first — he is certain 

 of it, for he has seen it, and seeing is believing. A third asserts that 

 under his good management the Vines (which in some hands are so 

 obstinately stupid) start into activity simultaneously at both ends ; 

 while a writer from the banks of Nith tries to make it clear that you 

 can almost say to either wood or roots, " Grow first !" and it groweth • 

 and maintains that roots are very much the creatures of circumstances, 

 and that writers should not be too dogmatic, seeing that our knowledge 

 of vegetable physiology is of a somewhat imperfect character. 



I might go on to show how almost every point connected with Grape- 



