t3;o.] THOUGHTS ABOUT GRAPE -GROWING. 155 



soils is doubtless great, but my experience and observation would lead 

 me to decide for the red sandstone to produce vigorous Vines. 



As to the pruning by the cut-to-the-best-bud system — that is, leaving 

 two, three, or four eyes, as the case may be, in preference to spurring 

 back to one bud — I think there is a phase of this question which has 

 not been brought prominently forward. The two- or three-bud system 

 produces, perhaps, a bigger, at least a longer, bunch ; but that is not 

 proving that it produces a better or more serviceable bunch, which is 

 the real question. No good Grape-grower is ever afraid to spur back 

 good Vines to a single eye close home to the main stem. It is a well- 

 known fact that the ripening process of the wood begins at the base of 

 the young shoot, and finishes upwards to the extremity ; and that, in 

 pruning the shoot within an inch or so of the main stem, the wood is 

 found harder and with much less pith than three or four buds farther 

 up along the growth. My experience has been — for I have tested it 

 over and over again — that the long spur yields a bigger and less com- 

 pact bunch, more likely to shank than does the hard wood closer 

 home, which yields a more compact, neat, and serviceable bunch, and 

 generally with bigger berries and stiffer foot-stalks than the bigger 

 buds farther up the shoot. Now I hold it to be wrong to judge of the 

 produce of a Vine by the size of bunch. The aim of the family Grape- 

 grower is fine berries, and compact, moderate-sized bunches in great 

 numbers. Tested by family usefulness, and, commercially, by the 

 demand of the market, the smaller and compact bunch takes precedence 

 of the biggest bunch j besides, employers soon tire of sensational 

 Grape-growing to the tune of 6 or 8 bunches to a 16 or 20 feet rafter. 

 If serviceable bunches are wanted, I advise to prune back to one eye ; 

 if larger, looser, and less serviceable bunches are wanted, take them 

 from the fourth or fifth bud. 



The question as to whether the root or top growth of Vines com- 

 mences first (looked at as coming merely within the range of physi- 

 ology) may not be of vast moment to the practitioner, although all that 

 is connected with plant life bears directly on practical horticulture. 

 Most experienced Vine-growers will agree that the growth of root or 

 branch takes precedence the one of the other, according to circum- 

 stances. The local application of heat — the great moving power in 

 the growth of plants — in most cases settles that. It is a point I have 

 narrowly watched in the case of pot- Vines, and have always found that 

 a Vine not plunged in bottom-heat, but placed on a shelf in a hothouse, 

 will make top-growth before new growth takes place at the root ; but, 

 plunged in bottom-heat, and the top kept cool, young roots are pro- 

 duced first. Vines shaken out and planted in the ordinary way, I 

 have invariably found to make top-growth to a certain extent rapidly, 



