THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 99 



Prune at the same time, and in the same way, as last year; 

 and, at the autumn trimming, leave four feet more of the new 

 cane ; this will now be sixteen or seventeen feet long, and of 

 sufficient length to bear as large crops as the vine should ever 

 be required to do. In November, clean and place the vines, 

 and protect them from frost, as heretofore. 



Fifth Year. 



Fifth year, the same general treatment is to be pursued ; 

 the leading cane must be stopped at the top of the house, 

 leaving two or three of the extreme laterals to grow a short 

 time, and stopping them at intervals of four or five days, the 

 top one first. 



Yon may now allow the vines to bear twenty pounds of 

 fruit, and, as they grow older and stronger, you can increase 

 the weight to twenty-five pounds. I have never seen more 

 than this quantity ripened on a vine, in this country, (under 

 ordinary circumstances,) without injuring the crop the year 

 after. It is true, we often hear of much larger crops, but my 

 experience will not warrant any thing of the kind. 



Remarkable Vines. — In England, there are two very re- 

 markable vines, which are said to produce, yearly, over two 



in this system, all the buds of the year which have grown and ripened under the in- 

 fluence of a summer and autumn's sun, annihilated ' at one fell swoop,' and stares, 

 when told that he is to trust entirely, for his crop of next year, to a bud which he can 

 hardly see. Might I ask your contributors who delight in vine culture, whether the 

 success of this plan depends upon the great power working at the roots, — the forty 

 barge loads of manure, such as our friend at Bishop's Stortford supplies to the glut- 

 tony of his vines, — and which converts that which, in ordinary circumstances, would 

 be at best but a weak wood bud, to the production of the finest fruit ? Is this mode 

 of pruning likely to be generally successful '? There are, undoubtedly, many advan- 

 tages in it. Amongst others, it does seem more consistent with nature, and with all 

 our ideas of rendering culture subservient to her laws, to retain the main stem of the 

 tree which furnishes the largest capacity for the flow of the sap ; it also enables us to 

 keep both fruit and foliage close under the rafters, and thereby to secure the greater 

 quantity of light flowing into our houses. J. J ."—Gardeners' Chronicle, 1847, p. 718. 

 At the exhibition of the London Horticultural Society, in November, 1 847, grapes 

 of the Black Hamburgh and Muscat of Alexandria varieties, from the above viner- 

 ies, obtained the Knightian medal, and it was said of them, that " better specimens 

 could scarcely have been desired." 



