88 THE HOME ACRE. 



length for these vine-slips, and they should con- 

 tain at least two buds. Let each slip be cut off 

 smoothly just under the lowest bud, and extend 

 an inch or two above the uppermost bud. If these 

 cuttings are obtained in November or December, 

 they may be put into a little box with some of the 

 moist soil of the garden, and buried in the ground 

 below the usual frost-line, say a foot or eighteen 

 inches in our latitude. The simple object is to 

 keep them in a cool, even temperature, but not a 

 frosty one. Early in April dig up the box, open 

 a trench in a moist but not wet part of the garden, 

 and insert the cuttings perpendicularly in the soil, 

 so that the upper bud is covered barely one inch. 

 In filling up the trench, press the soil carefully yet 

 firmly about the cuttings, and spread over the sur- 

 face just about them a little fine manure. The 

 cuttings should be a foot apart from each other in 

 the row. Do not let the ground become dry about 

 them at any time during the summer. By fall 

 these cuttings will probably have thrown out an 

 abundance of roots, and have made from two to 

 three feet of vine. In this case they can be taken 

 up and set out where they are to fruit. Possibly 

 but one or two of them have started vigorously. 

 The backward ones had better be left to grow 

 another year in the cutting bed. Probably we shall 

 not wish to cultivate more than one or two vines 



