MANAGEMENT. 109 



as many yards apart. The distance, therefore, at which 

 vines may be planted from each other, need have but 

 little reference to the space which their roots will oc- 

 cupy in the border, but rather to the surface of the 

 wall, on which the branches are to be trained. A 

 vine trained as represented by fig. 7, will stretch its 

 two arms about five feet in length, and if ten feet in 

 height be set apart for the shoots to be trained on, the 

 whole surface required will be fifty square feet. Now, 

 the annual increase in the girt of the stem of a vine 

 planted in good ground, will be found on an average, 

 after it comes to be fruited regularly, to be about half 

 an inch, which gives an increase in its powers of ma- 

 turation equal to five pounds' weight of fruit ; and if 

 sixty pounds be estimated as the greatest quantity which 

 annually can be obtained from a vine confined within 

 this space, it will appear, that if a cutting be planted, 

 it will be fifteen or sixteen years before it can be ex- 

 pected to arrive at such a degree of strength, as to be 

 able to mature that quantity of fruit. This space of 

 time is so great, that it seems highly desirable to shorten 

 it. And this is easily done by allowing to each vine 

 when first planted no more than half this portion of the 

 surface of the wall, namely, twenty-five square feet 

 for the training of the branches ; and when it has at- 

 tained such a degree of strength that its shoots can- 

 not be kept within the limits of that space, let every 

 alternate vine be cut out. If the wall, therefore, be ten 

 feet high, plant the vines two feet and a half apart, 

 and appropriate to each vine the five lower feet of the 

 surface, and the five upper in alternate succession. To 

 form the stems of those destined for the upper portion 

 of the wall, instead of cutting down the vine in the 

 autumn ^f the third year of its growth to the three 

 lowermost buds, cut out all the buds on the shoot, to the 

 height of five feet from the ground, and select the three 



