Treatment and Management of the Vines. 387 



will be really necessary at this time is to sprinkle the house 

 rather sparingly at midday. 



Pruning the Vines. — November 1st. The grapes by this 

 time will be all cut from the vines, and the stopping process given 

 up. About the 20th of this month, the vines should be taken 

 from the trellis, and pruned : the rod that has borne the crop 

 of fruit this year is cut out altogether, leaving a succession 

 cane, which was taken up nearly to the top of the house from 

 the first or second bud heloiv the fruit bearing one : this suc- 

 cession growth received the same treatment, viz., in stopping 

 the lateral growths, occasionally, and the frequent tying or 

 training of the shoot, that the fruiting one received the first 

 season, with this exception, that it was stopped within two or 

 three feet of the top of the house, and pruned to the length of 

 eight or ten feet, taken down and protected in a similar man- 

 ner as in the previous season. 



1843. General Treatment. — I shall suppose that similar 

 treatment with the like favorable results was practised through 

 this season, therefore I consider it to be altogether superfluous 

 for me to repeat my observations. The management in all 

 the leading points is the same, only that the vines have not 

 to support this year an extra growth to bear the next crop of 

 fruit. In November of this year, the vines were pruned on 

 the close spurring system the first time, and secured by a cov- 

 ering of straw, as before stated, through the winter, and thus 

 end the first three seasons in the management of the vines. 

 Mr. Thomas Needham proved himself to be a master of his 

 profession, having grown very superior fruit. 



1844. Uticovering the Vines. — April 1st was the com- 

 mencement of my services with Horace Gray, Esq. As the 

 previous winter had been very severe, I took the earliest op- 

 portunity I had to examine the vines, then under their winter 

 covering, which I found to be in number, ninety-eight. After 

 a careful supervision of each vine, I found seven of them dead 

 to within a few inches of the roots. The whole were uncov- 

 ered the third week in April : owing to this being a cold house, 

 the exposiu'e of the vines could not be done with safety before 

 this time, — having no means of counteracting the frosts which 

 we occasionally have at this season of the year. The injured 

 vines were forthwith cut down to the ground ; they soon put 



