96 ON THE TRAINING OP VINES. 



foliage will shade it, then, under these circumstances, 

 every bud (except the two first) produced previously to 

 the month already named, will be a fruit-bud, and will 

 show accordingly, when it unfolds in the following year, 

 one or more bunches of grapes. 



The cause of the production of fruit-buds in the lat- 

 ter instance, and of their non-production in the former, 

 may be thus further explained. As the shoot is pro- 

 gressively developed, if it be shaded by any adjacent 

 foliage, the sap of the shaded part remains in its origi- 

 nal thin and watery state, being excluded from the 

 sun's rays, which are necessary to warm and elaborate 

 it, and thereby prepare it for the developement of 

 bunches of fruit in embryo. The sap being thus thin 

 and watery, for want of due exposure to the sun, pushes 

 on with amazing quickness, the shoot elongating it- 

 self on the surface of the wall, much more rapidly than 

 it otherwise would do, thereby forming long-jointed 

 wood, not one bud of which will be sufficiently matured 

 to produce fruit ; the principle of growth having been 

 in full operation, but that of maturation having remained 

 dormant. But, if the shoot be trained on the wall, 

 and exposed to the full power of the solar rays, in the 

 manner already mentioned, the sap, by being warmed, 

 becomes thickened, or, as it is termed inspissated, in 

 which state it accumulates at the joints of the shoot, 

 and expends itself in the formation of fruit-buds. In 

 this case the principles of growth and of maturation 

 will have been in active co-operation. 



I have had good grapes produced from buds formed 

 as late as the beginning of September in a favourable 

 season, and also from shoots trained within three inches 

 of each other, as well as on aspects considerably north 

 of the eastern and western points of the horizon ; but as 

 there is some degree of uncertainty attached in these 

 cases they are rejected in the rule, lest the practical 



