THE VINES TO SET. 279 



There is some difference in the quality of vines. I suppose 

 I shall tread upon the toes of some nursery-men here ; I expect 

 to. You find advertised in the catalogues, one-year-old vines 

 at a certain price ; two-year-old vines at about double the 

 price ; three-year-old vines, very large and ready for bearing, 

 at about three times the price of. one-year-old. You can 

 spend your money for which you please, your money being 

 your own, but if I were to buy them, I should take the very 

 cream of the one-year-old vines and pay the price ; the two- 

 year-old vines I would not buy if one-year-olds were to be 

 had, and the three-year-old vines I would not buy at all, 

 unless I was cold and could not get any other fuel. My ex- 

 perience in setting out vines and trees has been this : that the 

 young trees and young vines always succeed best in the end. 

 People are very impatient when they set out trees, and they 

 get large ones, assuming that they are going to bear immedi- 

 ately. They may get a little fruit the first year, but the 

 result in the end, I think, is not as good as it is where 

 young trees are bought. If we buy yearlings, we are very 

 sure to get the whole system of roots ; if we buy two-year- 

 old vines, we do not get the whole system of roots, unless 

 they have been transplanted. [The speaker here illustrated, 

 by a sketch upon the blackboard, the growth of the roots 

 the first and second years, and said that when a two-year-old 

 vine was bought, the nursery-man cut the root just about at 

 the point where the second year's growth began, so that the 

 purchaser got only about the same amount of root that he 

 would if he bought one-year-old vines.] If a little pains is 

 taken in removing a vine when it is a year old, the whole 

 system of roots cut off the length of two or three inches and 

 re-set, then we get a new system of roots from the whole 

 centre, and they do not grow so far ; then we are more 

 likely to get a strong vine. Hence if a vine has been grown 

 two years, it is not so objectionable, although it is not, in 

 my view, quite so good as a first-class one-year-old vine. 



But there are a great many vines that do not fairly start 

 the first year ; they just live, and that is all ; they make no 

 roots of any consequence, — perhaps two or three inches, just 

 enough to live over. If these vines stand another year, they 

 are almost in the condition of a cutting in the spring of the sec- 



