70 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 



apart, along their whole length, covering them over 

 with 6 inches of the same compost, and giving them 

 a good watering with warm water. This was done in 

 March, just as their buds were beginning to swell. 

 They broke as weak as straws, and looked very miserable 

 till about the end of July, when they showed some 

 signs of making second growths of a more vigorous 

 character than the first. Shortly after this time I dug 

 down to several of the roots I had made the incisions 

 in, and found that, from the lip of each wound nearest 

 the parent stem, a great number of young roots, like 

 porcupine quills, had started off into the new soil. 

 This was in the summer of 1838, and in 1839 they 

 broke comparatively strong, showing a fair' crop of fruit, 

 which they brought to perfect maturity. In 1840, and 

 for seven or eight years afterwards, they bore first-rate 

 crops of excellent grapes, colouring well. They were 

 black Hamburgs. About 1848 they, however, began 

 to indicate that their vigour was on the wane ; and as 

 the house had to undergo extensive repairs, I removed 

 them all to make way for a new border and young 

 vines, except one at the west end of the house, which 

 I kept, partly as a memento, and partly to experiment 

 upon. During the process of removing the old border 

 I had the entire soil and roots removed from the one 

 in question to within 6 feet of its stem. I then re- 

 moved the soil from the bare arms for roots they 

 could scarcely be termed to within 3 feet all round ; 

 and after making incisions in them as before, I laid 

 them, radiating from the centre, in the new soil of 

 the border made up for the young vines ; and though 

 the vine looked sickly for a time, and the leaves flagged 



