154 PLANTING AND MANAGING 



of vine cuttings from one of the most celebrated vine- 

 yards in Spain. They were the entire growth of the 

 year, as each had a portion of the preceding year's 

 wood attached to it. The longest shoot measured 8J 

 feet, but the average length was about eight feet. 

 The wood was perfectly cylindrical, and of the 

 closest texture, and almost as hard as heart of oak. 

 The buds were large, prominent, and highly symmet- 

 rical, and stood out in bold relief on the sides of the 

 canes. They were produced so near to each other as 

 to be only If of an inch apart. Now, a correspond- 

 ing shoot produced in this country by an established 

 vine would be about 25 feet in length, and the buds 

 would be on an average, distant from each other be- 

 twixt four and five inches. The shoots produced in 

 these different countries, therefore, would each contain 

 pretty nearly the same number of buds; and the 

 question immediately arises, what was the cause of 

 the great disproportion that existed in the length of 

 these shoots'? Simply, no other than the greater 

 intensity of the light and heat which the Spanish 

 shoots enjoyed over the English shoot. Nature was 

 as long manufacturing 1| of an inch of wood in 

 Spain as she was 4| inches in this country; but then, 

 in the former instance, the bright light of the sun, 

 and the intensity of his rays, would not let the shoot 

 go ahead. Their united influence caused it to linger 

 in its growth, and its watery sap, therefore, was 

 turned into a jelly-like sabstance almost as fast as it 

 was produced, and then fine fruit buds was the 

 natural consequence. And these shoots may be con- 

 sidered as types of all others produced within the 

 vinous latitude. 



Thus it will be seen that a certain amount of direct 

 solar light and heat will cause slowness of growth in 

 the shoots of a vine, and the consequent production 

 of fine fruit buds ; any point of culture, therefore, that 

 may be followed for the purpose of causing a vine to 

 grow fast, and to compel its shoots to elongate at a 

 railroad pace, is a step taken in the wrong direction, 



