28 VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 



for their being planted ; I shook all the earth from their 

 roots, and spread them out on the soil of the border, 

 one vine to each rafter, and 5 feet apart, covered the 

 roots with 6 inches of soil, and gave the whole a good 

 watering, with water at a temperature of 150, and cov- 

 ered the surface with an inch of dry soil to prevent, to 

 some extent, the escape of the heat communicated to 

 the border by the warm water. The vines were just 

 bursting their buds when planted, and instead of adopt- 

 ing the usual practice of stopping, or rubbing off all the 

 buds but one or two, I allowed all to grow, and tied 

 them carefully to the wires ; by this means I had in 

 some instances ten rods to one vine, all of which have, 

 during the season, run to the top of the house, and partly 

 down the back wall, a distance of 30 feet, and many of 

 these rods are as strong as ever I had previously seen a 

 single rod from a vine the first year it was planted. At 

 this date (6th January 1865) they are not yet cut down, 

 and the whole house is a perfect thicket of wood. I 

 will shortly cut back all these vines to within a foot of 

 the front sashes, and train up two rods from each this 

 season, for fruiting in 1866 ; and I need not tell those 

 who know that a plant makes roots in proportion to its 

 leaves, that vines treated as I have described will have 

 an enormous excess of roots formed in the border, as 

 compared with others treated on the one rod and pinch- 

 ing system, and that the bearing-rods they will make 

 this year will be in proportion to the extent and vigour 

 of their roots in the soil. I have just measured one of 

 them that, when planted in April, was not thicker than 

 a writing-quill, and I find that it is now 3^ inches in 

 circumference, and has ten rods perfectly ripe to the top 



