82 Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



40. On the Cultivation of the Vine. By Mr. .John Smith, Gardener 

 to D. Alexander, Esq., St. Matthew's, Ipswich. Communicated 

 by the Ipswich Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Smith prefers the long running method of pruning the 

 vine ; that is, laying in the young shoots of the last year of 

 nearly their whole length, and, after they have borne a crop, 

 cutting them out, and replacing them by other young shoots of 

 similar lengths. The difficulty is, to get such shoots to break, 

 or burst their buds, equally from the commencement of the shoot 

 to its termination. To effect this, Mr. Smith began by making 

 the following experiment : — 



" When the external air was cold, I tried the heat of a hot-house near the 

 glazed surface, and found the thermometer averaged from 1 J°or 2° of heat higher 

 £tt 10 in. or 12 in. from the glass than at 1 in., or nearly in contact with it. The 

 roof of the house in which the experiment was made is two lights deep, and the 

 trellis is attached to the rafters at an equal distance ; consequently, the vines, 

 being fixed thereto, are at a greater distance from the glass at the upper part 

 of the house by the thickness of the lower light, on which the upper one 

 slides, and therefore, in midwinter, are in a warmer air : of course, this assists 

 the disposition of the upper buds in their natural habit of breaking first. To 

 counteract this, I fixed the shoot at about lOJ in. from the glass at its base, 

 bringing its extreme end close to the glass, by a gradual inclination, at about 

 the twenty-sixth bud, and running the remaining part in close contact with the 

 glass to its end. In the beginning of February, the plant began to break its 

 eyes, and, as I purposely kept the house rather dry, a very fine piece of wood, 

 on the same plant, but trained to the trellis, broke only eight buds at its ex- 

 treme end, while the one above described broke every bud, and nearly of 

 equal strength, except those at the extreme end, which, by lowering a little 

 from the glass, broke also ; and this piece of wood, of about half an inch in 

 diameter, with thirty-two buds, showed sixty-five healthy bunches of grapes, 

 or two on every bud, with an additional one on the fifth bud from the base. 

 Having satisfied my mind in bringing an important desideratum to a settlement, 

 I headed it back to its twentieth bud ; and though I intended cutting it out 

 entirely in the outset of the experiment, I now chose rather to leave about 

 half a dozen bunches on it, disbudding, of course, the remainder, &c. That 

 to study the variation in the heat of the glazed surface of a hot-house, caused 

 by radiation, is a subject worthy our attention, will be readily admitted ; for, 

 although it appears that the uppermost surface is the coldest in midwinter, 

 yet an effect directly contrary to it is produced as the season advances, and a 

 practice contrary to the one above stated is required, which can only be con- 

 veniently and effectually obtained by the use of a movable trellis, fixed at its 

 lower part, but capable of elevation at its upper end. This would not only 

 secure, by its use in the dreary months of winter, a good breaking of the vine 

 at an early season, but it would give an advantage above the fixed trellis in 

 other particulars, especially in the prevention of a disease common to grapes 

 at their approaching a state of maturity ; for whatever conclusion experience 

 may end in as to the cause of the disease, it is certain that the rays of the sun 

 falling upon condensed vapour produce an air not very fit for a delicate plant, 

 loaded with fruit, to live and to flourish in ; but, as Mr. Judd expresses it, 

 one that is calculated to produce an effect equal to scalding, in consequence 

 of which the fruit becomes deformed, and ceases to acquire that state of per- 

 fection it otherwise would do. But suppose the rays of the sun to raise the 

 thermometer in a hot-house to 90°; antl suppose that, with all the air that 

 can be admitted, it rises still higher, say to 95°, at 10 in. from the glass it 

 would be considerably increased, say 10"^ ; while, at a similar distance, or at 



