ROOTS OF GRAPE VINES. 155 



and calculated to propuce an opposite effect to that 

 which is intended, and such is the case with rich and 

 highly manured borders, which incite the roots to an 

 unnatural growth, and cause the shoots to elongate at 

 too rapid a rate, thereby producing long-jointed ple- 

 thoric wood, and such a mass of rampant foliage as 

 can with great difficulty be kept within its allotted 

 bounds. AH such borders are at the same time much 

 colder in consequence of the stimulating substances of 

 which they are composed, and the frequent top- 

 dressings they receive, settling down into a solid ad- 

 hesive mass, and thereby increasing the disparity that 

 exists betwixt the temperature of the roots and 

 branches. 



And it is this disparity that is the prolific source of 

 the mishaps and failures that are so constantly occur- 

 ring with vines under glass, especially with those that 

 are forced early. The colder the soil is in which the 

 roots are planted, the later will it be in spring before 

 they move and yield nourishment to the branches ; 

 and, unless some kind of artificial warmth be given to 

 the roots, they cannot produce new ones, until excited 

 thereto by the influence of the solar rays, and these 

 are not sufficiently powerful for that purpose until a 

 long time after the vernal equinox. The difference in 

 point of time which exists betwixt the period when 

 the buds open, and the shootsof the vine elongate, and 

 that of the emission as new roots, is at all times much 

 greater than is usually supposed. Even vines on the 

 open wall, the roots and branches of which are moved 

 solely by the natural warmth of the sun, generally 

 produce leading shoots three or four feet long before 

 any new roots make their appearance.* 



* This year (1844) the author had occasion to examine upwards of a 

 thousand young vines (part of his nursery stock) of the respective ages of 

 one, two, and three years, the shoots of which had been growing, although 

 slowly, from the 1st of April until the 1st of July, on which latter day, the 

 examination took place. 



But notwithstanding a period of three calendar months had intervened, 

 not one of these vines had the slightest appearance of the formation of any 

 new roots. The shoots and leaves had therefore been living during that 



