52 JIR. EKRINGTOX ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 



ceive, be admitted tliat tlie floor-line lias in most cases an intimate 

 relation witli the wall-plate, and of course tlie front sashes, it 

 becomes a matter of considerable importance to establish it 

 aright ; and I always consider it an omen of good vine culture 

 to ascend into a vinery by several steps. 



Another and a very common error, according to my opinion, 

 is the mode of managing young vines for the first two years in 

 newly-planted vineries : they are disbudded and trimmed as 

 sprucely as if the object w^as to carry heavy crops and to obtain 

 plump eyes. Now the primary object of good cultivation should 

 be, I conceive, to obtain a border tolerably well filled with roots. 



The best way to accomplish this is to allow the top to run riot 

 entirely for the first year, and nearly so in the second ; for 

 without abundance of leaf there cannot be abundance of root. 

 In the second year, however, the laterals should be stripped en- 

 tirely away, in a progressive manner, from as much of the main 

 stem as it is intended to retain at the winter's pruning, in order 

 to admit light to the principal leaves, on the agency of which 

 the success of the first year's fruit depends. 



It has been the opinion of many, perhaps the majority of cul- 

 tivators, that "shanking" in grapes is occasioned by atmospheric 

 influences: I am of a very difi'erent opinion. I do not however 

 say that such checks, through sudden depressions of temperature, 

 do not assist in causing it — they fairly may. The chief cause is, 

 liowever, torpidity in the action of the root, perhaps at the very 

 period when the greatest demand is made upon it to sustain the 

 excessive perspiration which is going on in the leaf, and to fur- 

 nish fresh matter for elaboration ; to both which ends it is fre- 

 quently quite inadequate, owing to drenching rains. 



If tlie young fibre be examined at such inclement periods, it 

 will be found somewhat discoloured ; nay, in some cases quite 

 rotten. And this is not to be wondered at when the habits of 

 the plant are duly considered, and the diffigrence estimated be- 

 tween a vine on the slope of a rocky surface in the south of 

 Europe or Asia, with six inches of soil, and one in the cold 

 northern clime of Britain, in four or five feet of rich soil, every 

 breathing pore closed with a kind of alluvium. This is no over- 

 charged picture — I have seen scores of such cases. 



Besides, if shanking were caused bj' sudden depressions of tem- 

 perature, why should it not occur more frequently on walls out of 

 doors, wliere the thermometrical changes are at least as great as 

 in doors ? Yet here it seldom occurs, and here again the border is 

 seldom so deep, so rich, or so far below the surface level, as 

 some of our hothouse borders, many of which contain material 

 sufficient for thrice their extent. 



The West's St. Peter's Grape, of which I now send specimens, 



