VINE BORDERS, PLANTING AND TRAINING. 251 



chase "Allen's Treatise on the Grape," or if possible, visit the grape 

 house of Wra. Resor, Esq.^of Cincinnati. 



Vine Borders. Upon the formation of vine borders for cold, as 

 well as forcing houses, more has been written and published than one 

 person could read at rate of ten hours a day, in one entire month. 

 Some advise the formation of the border all outside, while others 

 prefer inside. Our advice is, let the border embrace a width three 

 feet inside the front wall and six feet outside, making a border nine 

 feet wide ; if sandy ground, no care will be required to form a 

 drainage ; but if on clayey, retentive soil, dig out all the earth three 

 feet deep, form a drain in center at bottom, leading away from the 

 house, prepare fresh virgin earth or turf from old pastures or woods, 

 and mix well rotted barn-yard manure in about equal quantities, or 

 perhaps a little most of the soil, add to this one tenth in quantity . 

 each of gypsum, (plaster of Paris,) and ground bones, and one sixth 

 of wood ashes ; let it be well mixed before putting in the border. 

 Parings of horses' hoofs, and cinders from a blacksmith's shop, street 

 scrapings, leather paring, old rags, bones, etc., are all used and all 

 good, but the above named materials, with liberal watering with 

 soap-suds and occasional sprinkling of sulphur (which will be necessary 

 at times to check mildew) will for a time give good growth of vine 

 and fruit. 



Planting and Training. The vines, being obtained from a nur- 

 sery, generally come in crocks or pots ; the earth should be well 

 wet, and then by inserting the finger at the hole at the small end or 

 bottom of the crock, the whole ball of roots entire is pushed out ; 

 now plant just outside the front wall, and so that you can run the 

 stem immediately under, leaving the roots only outside ; let each 

 plant stand half way between each rafter, and as they grow 

 train to a wire fastened at top each of front and back wall so as to 

 be six inches below the glass. Spur pruning is regarded best .for 

 cold houses, and ts plainly described as follows : " In pruning in the 

 fall, after the first year''s growth, each alternate eye is disbudded on 

 each side of the cane, leaving those wanted for breaking next season 

 about fifteen inches apart. The next season, when pruning for spurs, 

 the side shoots are cut back to three eyes, or even four, according as 

 the lower buds may be plump and well rounded. In breaking, each 

 bud puts forth a shoot ; the most promising one nearest the top, and 

 the one at the base, is allowed to remain, and the other is rubbed 

 out. The top one is allowed to bear, and the fruit on the bottom 

 one is pinched out. The fruit bearing spur is stopped three or four 

 joints above the fruit, and the other one next to the base is also 

 stopped, when it has grown seven or eight leaves. They are now 

 trained as shown in the following figure. 



