THE GRAPE. 309 



in all cases. The spur system is, however, practised by many 

 gardeners, with m>re or less success. This, as most of our 

 readers are aware, consists in allowing a single shoot to extend 

 from each root to the length of the rafters ; from the sides of this 

 stem are produced the bearing shoots every year ; and every 

 autumn these spurs are shortened back, leaving only one bud 

 at the bottom of each, which in its turn becomes the bearing 

 shoot, and is again cut back the next season. The fruit is 

 abundantly produced, and of good flavour, but the bunches are 

 neither so large nor fair, nor do the vines continue so long in a 

 productive and healthy state as when the wood is annually re- 

 newed. 



The essential points in pruning and training the vine, what- 

 ever mode be adopted, according to Loudon, " are to shorten the 

 wood to such an extent that no more leaves shall be produced 

 than can be fully expose.d to the light ; to stop all shoots pro- 

 duced in the summer that are not likely to be required in the 

 winter pruning, at two or three joints, or at the first large 

 healthy leaf from the stem where they originate ; and to stop 

 all shoots bearing bunches at one joint, or at most two, beyond 

 the bunch. As shoots which are stopped, generally push a 

 second time from the terminal bud, the secondary shoots thus 

 produced should be stopped at one joint. And if at that joint 

 they push also, then a third stopping must take place at one 

 joint, and so on as long as the last terminal bud continues to 

 break. Bearing these points in mind, nothing can be more 

 simple than the pruning and training of the vine." 



When early forcing of the vines is commenced, the heat 

 should be applied very gently, for the first few days, and after- 

 wards very gradually increased. Sixty degrees of Fahrenheit's 

 thermometer may be the maximum, till the buds are all nearly 

 expanded. When the leaves are expanded sixty-five may be 

 the maximum and fifty-five the minimum temperature. When 

 the vines are in blossom, seventy-five or eighty, in mid-day, 

 with the solar heat should be allowed, with an abundance of 

 air, and somewhat about this should be the average of mid-day 

 temperature. But, as by far the best way of imparting infor- 

 mation as to the routine of vine culture under glass is to pre- 

 sent a precise account of a successful practice, we give here 

 the diary of 0. Johnson, Esq., of Lynn, Mass., as reported by 

 him in Hovey's Magazine. Mr. Johnson is a very successful 

 amateur cultivator, and we prefer to give his diary rather than 

 that of a professional gardener, because we consider it as likely 

 to be more instructive to the beginner in those little points which 

 most professional men are likely to take for granted as being 

 commonly known. We may premise here that the vines were 

 planted out in the border in May, 1835 ; they were then one 

 year old, in pots. In 1836 and 183Y, they were headed down. 



