INTRODUCTION. 17 



who suffer any portion of them to remain vacant. Nor 

 must it be supposed that a single vine requires for its 

 training a large portion of walling. That it does, I 

 am aware, is a very common notion, but it is a very 

 erroneous one, and one that has no doubt arisen from 

 the universally defective method of pruning and ma- 

 naging that plant ; whereby the wood is suffered, and 

 indeed encouraged, to extend itself most disproportion- 

 ately beyond the capability of its fruit-bearing powers. 

 I scarcely ever allot more than from forty to fifty 

 square feet of surface for one vine, and unless the soil 

 and situation be very superior indeed, a single vine 

 will require a space of time not less than twenty years 

 at least, before it will possess a sufficient degree of 

 strength to enable it to mature, annually, a greater 

 quantity of grapes than can be trained on the last-men- 

 tioned extent of surface. Qn a wall only twenty-five 

 inches in height, and eighteen feet in length, I have 

 for years trained a vine that is a perfect picture of fer- 

 tility, the whole surface of the wall being, every year, 

 literally covered with fine grapes close down to the very 

 stem of the plant. It will thus be seen, that small 

 detached portions and vacant spaces of the surface of 

 walls, which in innumerable instances are deemed of 

 no value, and are therefore neglected, may be turned 

 to a most beneficial account in the production of the 

 fruit of the vine. 



And with reference to the importance of the culture 

 of the vine, as affording a most valuable and highly 

 esteemed fruit, it deserves especial remark, that for the 

 making of wine, not only are ripened grapes applicable 

 to that purpose, but from the leaves, tendrils, and 

 young shoots of vines, and also from unripe or imma- 

 ture grapes, very fine wine may be made, differing in 

 no respect from many sorts of wines imported from 

 abroad, as the following extract from Dr. Macculloch's 



