THE GRAPE. 301 



varieties grow and bear well on any strong land, but the essence 

 of all that can be said in grape culture respecting soil is that it 

 be dry and light, deep and rich. Frequent top-dressings of well 

 rotted manure should be applied to vines in open borders, and 

 this should every third or fourth year be alternated with a 

 dressing of slaked lime. 



Propagation. The grape vine makes roots very freely, and 

 is, therefore, easy of propagation. Branches of the previous or 

 current year's wood bent down any time before mid-summer, 

 and covered with earth, as layers, root very freely, and make 

 bearing plants in a couple of years, or very frequently indeed 

 bear the next season. 



But the finer varieties of the vine are almost universally pro- 

 pagated by cuttings, as that is a very simple mode, and an 

 abundance of the cuttings being afforded by the annual trimming 

 of the vines. 



AVhen cuttings are to be planted in the open border, a some- 

 what moist and shaded place should be chosen for this purpose. 

 The cuttings should then be made of the young wood of the 

 previous year's growth, cut into lengths about a foot or eighteen 

 inches long, and having three buds — one near the top, one at 

 the bottom, and the third in the middle. Before planting the 

 cutting pare off its lower end smoothly, close below the buds, 

 and finally, plant it in mellow soil, in a slit made by the spade, 

 pressing the earth firmly about it with the foot.* 



The rarer kinds of foreign grapes are usually grown by cut- 

 tings of shorter length, consisting only of two buds ; and the 

 most successful mode is to plant each cutting in a small pot, and 

 plunge the pots in a slight hotbed, or place the cuttings at once 

 in the mould of the bed itself. In either case they will make 

 strong plants in the same season. 



But the most approved way of raising vine plants in pots is 

 that of propagation by eyes^ which we have fully explained in 

 the first part of this work. This, as it retains the least portion 

 of the old wood, is manifestly the nearest approach to raising a 

 plant from the seed, that most perfect of all modes with respect 

 to the constitution of a plant. In the case of new or rare sorts 

 it offers us the means of multiplying them with the greatest 

 possible rapidity. As the grape usually receives its annual 

 pruning in autumn or winter, the cuttings may be reduced to 

 nearly their proper length, and kept in earth, in the cellar, until 

 the ensuing spring. The hardier sorts may be buried in the 

 open gi'ound. 



The foreign and the native grapes are very different in their 



* In sandy or dry soils the cuttings may be left longer, and to insure 

 greater success, cover the upper end of the cutting with grafting wax, or 

 something of .he kind, to prevent evaporation. 



