132 ON THE PLANTING OF VINES 



NOTE. 



[The following chapter has been added to the present edition, 

 for the purpose of promoting the culture of the Vine in the various 

 towns, which are situated in the midland and southern parts of 

 England, the inhabitants of which are not, in general, aware, that 

 that valuable plant may be planted, trained, and fruited against 

 their houses and buildings with nearly as much facility and success 

 as in more favored situations in the country. It is true, that sin- 

 gle vines may already be found growing here and there in most 

 of the towns in the above-mentioned districts, not excepting the 

 metropolis itself; but the method in which they are cultivated, is 

 such, as not only to render them very unsightly appendages to the 

 buildings against which they are trained, but to reward the culti- 

 vator with only a small portion of fruit, at the disproportionate 

 cost of a vast deal of time and trouble. To the necessary conse- 

 quences of such a mode of culture, the fact may, no doubt, be 

 attributed, that the number of vines growing in those situations is, 

 comparatively speaking, so very small ; such examples being 

 much better calculated to deter, than to invite imitation. 



Vines, however, cultivated agreeably to the directions contained 

 in the foregoing pages, produce, annually, large quantities of fruit, 

 within a small extent of surface, and are, moreover, in any situa- 

 tion, and especially in a public one in a town, exceedingly interest- 

 ing objects to behold in every season of the year. And to the 

 lover of nature, what sight can surpass that of a vine, covered 

 with its beautiful foliage, and laden with its elegant and delicious 

 fruit? Even to those who reside in the country, and are fanniliar 

 with the beauties of the vegetable world, such a sight scarcely 

 ever fails to impart the highest gratification. But to the inhabitants 

 of a town, who seldom participate in any species of horticultural 

 enjoyment, what a source of pleasure would it not be, to witness a 

 portion of the surface of their dw^ellings covered annually with 

 fine crops of grapes? And who can contemplate, throughout the 

 progress of every returning season, the beautiful elaborations of 

 nature in the successive development of the bud, the leaf, the 

 blossom, and the fruit of the vine, without emotions of the purest 

 gratification ? 



Those, and those only, who are pent up within the precints of 

 a town, and perpetually harassed with the cares of business, the 

 calls of which seldom permit them to quit the busy haunts of their 

 fellow men to catch a glimpse of the beauties of nature,— such 

 only, know how cheering to the feelings is the contemplation of 

 the growth and formation of even the most trifling production of 

 the vegetable kingdom. To all such, therefore, the culture of the 

 vine presents a means of enjoyment of the most gratifying descrip- 

 tion. No other sort of fruit-tree can be planted with the slightest 



