138 ON THE PLANTING OF VINES 



of the present year 1837, will be fully ripe at the fall 

 of the leaf in November; the time, therefore, that in- 

 tervenes betwixt that event and the middle of March 

 in the next year, 1838, is the only period in the exist- 

 ence of that shoot in which it will be sufficiently flex- 

 ible for the purpose above-mentioned. Whenever it 

 becomes necessary, therefore, to train the fruiting 

 branches of a vine on a different side of a building to 

 that on which it is planted, the leading or connecting 

 limb must be trained round the corner (there to re- 

 main permanently), some time during the period of 

 its growth before-mentioned. And in all such cases, 

 this operation had better be performed in the autumn 

 succeeding the first summer's growth of a vine after 

 it has been transplanted, because the shoot to be bent 

 will then be comparatively small and weakly, and 

 consequently much more flexible than the shoot of 

 any subsequent year, after the vine has recovered 

 from the check which its growth has experienced by 

 transplantation. To perform this operation, then, ob- 

 serve the following directions. 



First, procure a coarse file or rasp, and having fixed 

 on the exact part of the corner of the building round 

 which the shoot is to be trained, file a^mall portion 

 of the edge away, in the form of a segment of a 

 circle, about three quarters of an inch deep, rounding 

 off" the edges of the circular part, so as to make the 

 surface of it, over which the shoot is to be trained, 

 as smooth and as round as possible. The shoot could 

 be bent round the corner without a portion of the 

 latter being thus filed away, but it can be done a 

 great deal easier with it. 



Secondly^ then take the shoot in both hands, and, 

 in a very gradual and cautious manner, bend it a 

 little at a time, until it is made to assume a suflicient 

 degree of curvature to answer the required purpose. 

 As soon as tiiis is the case, cut out, very smoothly, all 

 the buds that are on the shoot betwixt the stem of 

 the vine and the corner of the building; after which 

 nail that part of the shoot firmly to the wall. Then, 



