ON THE PKOPAGATION OP VINES. 71 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ON THE PROPAGATION OF VINES. 



VINES are propagated in the open ground, by layers, 

 and by cuttings. 



By layers. This is the most expeditious method of 

 raising vines, provided the shoots be laid down in pots 

 and planted out the same summer. But vines raised 

 from shoots laid down in the open ground, seldom ri- 

 pen their roots well, and are, therefore, inferior to 

 those raised from cuttings. There is also another ob- 

 jection to this mode of propagating vines. No shoots 

 of a well-established vine can be laid down in a border, 

 without the roots growing amongst those of the parent 

 vine. When the proper season arrives for the remov- 

 al of the young plant, the ground requires to be digged 

 to the depth of eighteen inches, in order to take 

 up its roots as entire as possible. Now, a vine border 

 cannot be digged to this depth, nor indeed anything 

 like it, without very greatly injuring the roots of the 

 parent vine. For this reason, therefore, and on ac- 

 count of the roots of young plants, so raised, frequently 

 dying off to a considerable extent in the ensuing win- 

 ter, through not being sufficiently ripened, the raising 

 of vines by layers in the open ground may be regarded 

 as an inferior method of propagation. 



To raise vines by laying down the shoots in pots, to 

 be planted out in the current summer, the following 

 directions, if observed, will ensure success. For each 

 layer procure a pot of the size of No. 24, and prepare 



