RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 49 



know many very old vines that have been cultivated 

 on the " restrictive system," and that have continued 

 in perfect health for many years. At Oakhill, near 

 London, Mr Dowding planted a number of vineries 

 forty years ago ; I became acquainted with them in 

 1837, and for twenty subsequent years Mr Davis, who 

 succeeded Mr Dowding, produced the most regular 

 and finest crops of grapes in the kingdom from these 

 same vines, yet they maintained their health, vigour, 

 and fruitfulness. They were planted one vine to each 

 rafter, and the system of pruning was the " close-cut- 

 ting" one, by which only one eye was left at the base of 

 each lateral. 



There is an old vine, referred to in this work, at 

 Wrotham Park, which is eighty years old, and has all 

 along been cultivated on the " restrictive system," for it 

 only clothes two rafters ; yet I learn from Mr Edling- 

 ton, who now has charge of it, that it is in as full 

 health and vigour as any of the younger vines, and 

 bears equally fine fruit, and has a stem 1 foot 7 inches 

 in girth. True, the border it grows in has been once 

 renewed in the time. In regard to this old vine I 

 make the following extract from a letter from Mr 

 Edlington just to hand. He writes, "The old Ham- 

 burg produces fruit equal to the other and younger 

 vines in the same house. Last year they were truly 

 magnificent, surpassing all other grapes on the place." 



I might go on multiplying instances to prove that 

 vines neither become unfruitful nor die off in nine 

 years, as Mr Cannell's did, because they are not allowed 

 to extend the area of their foliage annually, but I think 

 such unnecessary. The fact is, that the vine is a very 



D 



