Grapes. 381 



Good, strong, well ripened wood of one year's growth must be cut 

 in autumn, and secured for winter as already described. The work 

 of forming or planting the buds or eyes is usually done in March ; 

 and being inserted through the month by successive portions, the 

 work of repotting and afterwards setting out into open ground, may 

 be also performed successively without crowding all the work into 

 one period. It should not be done much later than early in April, 

 when warm weather without may prevent the operator from giving 

 the low temperature to the house, required for the leaves and shoots 

 during the early stages of growth. 



The operation should be commenced by trimming the wood which 

 holds the eyes into proper form throwing them into water to pre- 

 vent drying, until enough are prepared for setting in the beds or 

 pots. Different modes or forms are adopted for these cuttings. 

 One of the best for general practice is represented in Fig. 420, the 



Fig. 420. 



cut being about two and a half inches long, with the bud at the 

 upper end about a fourth of an inch from the top. 



When hot-beds are employed in giving bottom heat, the cuttings 

 are usually placed in pots ; but in the more common practice of 

 employing propagating houses, they may be placed either in pots, 

 shallow boxes, which have been well soaked in lime-wash some 

 months before to prevent the formation of mould or fungus, or 

 directly in beds about three inches deep over the hot water tanks in 

 the house. The best material for receiving the buds is clean, pure 

 building or lake sand, which is to be kept at all times at a uniform 



