296 Cultivation of the Grape Fme 



year, as the vines will then make a shoot from ten to twenty 

 feet long. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



After the vines are planted, it is only necessary to see that 

 the roots are well watered, should the weather prove dry, and 

 the surface mulched with a little coarse stable manure. The 

 leaves should also be well syringed every evening after the 

 house is closed for the night, which should be rather earlier 

 than usual. No other care is required but to keep the shoots 

 tied up, looking after them every few days, and nipping off all 

 laterals at the base of the first leaf. If duly attended to, 

 they will reach the top of an ordinary grapery by the end of 

 the season. 



It will have been noticed that our conservatory was so con- 

 structed that the sides are ten feet high ; in consequence of 

 this, it required a longer time to get a good shoot up to the 

 rafters ; and, as no good grapes could be expected until they 

 reached them, the vines in December were headed down to 

 within two feet of the floor. 



Second Season. — About the 1st of March, the vines began 

 to break their eyes : as soon as fully out, all were nipped off 

 but two ; these were allowed to grow until they attained the 

 length of two or three feet, for fear one might, by accident or 

 carelessness, be broken off: at the end of that time, the weak- 

 est one was cut quite out, and the remaining one grew rap- 

 idly, reaching the top of the house early in the season, and 

 making a thick and vigorous cane. The same treatment 

 was followed as the last year : all the laterals were nipped off 

 at the first leaf, and this repeated every time the remaining one 

 pushed, until the wood was fully ripe, when they were cut 

 clean off to the main eye : if done too early, it will cause the 

 eye to push, but if at the proper season, which can only be 

 told by the vigor of the shoots, and the ripeness of the wood, 

 it greatly strengthens the eye at the base. Syringing should 

 be well attended to before the plants are brought into the 

 house, and, in September, it should be thoroughly aired to 

 ripen the wood, on which much depends. In December, the 



