450 PLANTING THE VINE. 



will become a mass of fine healthy roots. Then prepare to plant them 

 .out, either by making the border up quite fresh, so that it may ferment 

 and give the necessary bottom heat, or by laying hot dung upon it to 

 impart the required temperature. This obtained, clear away the soil 

 to the proper depth, always planting shallow, so as to allow for the 

 border sinking, and then carrying the baskets out, place them as they 

 are to remain. Then removing the nuts from the pins, carefully with- 

 draw the latter, so that the basket may fall to pieces and be removed 

 almost without injuring a root. Here then we have a compact ball of 

 earth, densely filled with roots ; and we have only to fill in round it 

 with congenial soil, and to maintain the proper earth heat, to ensure 

 vigorous growth, and have canes by the end of the season twenty to 

 thirty feet long, and properly matured. 



And here let us remark, we are not advocates for extraordinary 

 luxuriance in the vine, for a nice short-jointed, thoroughly-matured 

 cane, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, or less, is better than a 

 shoot double that size, with pith in the centre as large as a cedar-pencil. 

 It is the moderately large, close, dense, thoroughly-matured wood, 

 with compact, prominent, well-rounded buds, that gives compact, 

 handsome, well-formed bunches, and large highly-coloured berries ; 

 while, on the contrary, gross immature branches produce loose ill- 

 shaped bunches, and too frequently berries defective in colour. Too 

 much attention cannot be paid to these facts by those who require 

 grapes of first-class excellence. It is easy to grow vines that may be 

 wonders of luxuriance, but not so easy to establish good permanent 

 vines. We recommended that two vines should be placed in each basket, 

 but we did not say why. The object is that one plant may be allowed 

 to produce a small crop of bunches the season after planting, and then 

 be cut away, and that the other may be cut down and have a pair of 

 branches taken from it to carry the crop in the third season. 



We have now carried the vine from its cutting state to the final 

 planting, and must turn to other systems of propagation. Increase by 

 layers is not much practised, at least not in this country, for the vine 

 strikes very readily from cuttings, which are much less troublesome 

 than layers. Still, if any person wishes to practise that system, it is only 

 necessary to cut a tongue in the old wood, an inch or two below its junc- 

 tion with the shoot of the previous season, and lay it in the earth or bend 

 it into a pot of good soil, and, the season being congenial, it will quickly 

 strike root. Layers should not be severed from the parent plant until 

 the wood is ripe in the autumn, and then what have we ? A fine vigo- 

 rous branch without a proportionate quantity of roots, and though 

 possibly much stronger, not so suitable for planting as a well-grown 

 plant from a cutting. Hence we say, avoid layers. 



The object of grafting the vine is to provide a vigorous-growing 

 stock for those varieties which are constitutionally delicate, and hence 

 do not grow properly upon their own roots. Among these may be 

 mentioned the Black Muscat, or Muscat Hamburgh, as it is commonly 

 called, a variety which sets irregularly upon its own roots, and pro- 

 duces but very small berries, but grafted upon the Hamburgh, it grows 



