CULTURE OF GRAPES IN VINERIES. 



of an inch in diameter, which is surely strong enough for vines in full bearing. Of this 

 he may have ocular demonstration, now the canes are swollen up. The bones used were 

 mostly about one-half inch in diameter, and of the size they can be evenly distributed 

 through every part; and as bones give out very slowly, there is no fear of permanent 

 benefit as far as they are conceri-ied. As to slaughter house oflfal, it has a tendency, under 

 some circumstances, to produce an enormous growth for a short time, but as to its per- 

 manent qualities, many cases might be brought forward to show that precisely opposite 

 effects are produced by it. I am convinced from experience, that as fine and well flavored 

 grapes can be grown without, as with this stinking ofifal, which Egberts, more poetically 

 and ridiculously, calls " the pabulum which is to supply the nectar of Bacchus." Even al- 

 lowing it to be more permanent, a border in which it has been used in any thing like a fresh 

 state, (and this is the way in which it is generally applied,) will in a short time become 

 a sodden mass, and more fit to puddle the sides of a duck pond, to hold in the water, than 

 a base for the succulent and tender rootlets of the grape vine to luxuriate in. If used at 

 all, it should be thoroughly decomposed, and blended with other compost before being ap- 

 plied. As fine grapes were grown before these substances came into fashion, and as fine 

 will continue to be grown when they are numbered with the things that were. 



As to the second assertion, viz: less cost, I do not see how slaughter house offal is to 

 be collected and conveyed a distance of seven or eight miles at a less cost than stable ma- 

 nure, which is always readil}' and cheaply obtained near large cities, and the diflerence 

 in the bones is so trifling as not to be worth calculating, where a thing is intended to be 

 done right. 



Your correspondent also seems to think, that I shall not be able to keep the wood " at 

 home," by the method on which the vines are pruned. I can assure him that it is just 

 as easy to do so as by cutting back so close, with the advantage of retaining more plump 

 and well swelled eyes, thereby ensuring larger and better shouldered bunches. As he 

 does not seem to have a right idea of it, I will explain. 



In pruning in the fall, after the first year's growth, each alternate eye is disbudded on 

 each side o fthe cane, leaving those wanted for breaking next season, about 15 inches apart. 

 The next season, when pruning for spurs, the side shoots are cut back to three eyes, or 

 even four, according as the lower buds may be plump and well rounded. In breaking, 

 each bud puts forth a shoot; the most promising one nearest to the top, and 

 the one at the base, are allowed to remain, and the other is rubbed out. The M 



top one is allowed to bear, and the fruit on the bottom is pinched out. The 

 fruit bearing spur is stopped three or four joints above the fruit, and the oth- 

 er one next to the base is also stopped, when it has grown seven or eight 

 leaves. They are now trained per diagram, a is the bearing shoot, and b the 

 one not to be fruited till next year; at next pruning, (or what is still better, 

 two or three weeks previous,) a is cut clean out to the base of b, and when the leaves fall 

 b is cut back to three eyes, as a was last season, and so on from year toj'ear. As j'our cor- 

 respondent, Mr. Messer, truly says, " nature will out," their will never be any lack of 

 eyes close to the main cane if the above is rightly performed. Notwithstanding the readi- 

 ness with which the grape-vine pushes fresh shoots when so closely pruned, there are some 

 of the larger and gross growing kinds, that fruit shyly, or produce nothing but small 

 bunches by such treatment — and this is one reason why some fine sorts get a bad charac- 

 ter. Wm. CnoRLTON, gardener to J. C. Green, Esq. 



Brighton, Staten-Island, Oct. 10, 1852 



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