Coiling System of Vine Culture. 365 



inclined to hold, as the stagnation referred to in all likelihood 

 took place at that critical period when the fully elaborated fecun- 

 dated sap, contained in the shoot as a reservoir, had been ex- 

 pended, and also because all that I have heard of (with the 

 exception of Mr. Mearns), who have obtained even very limited 

 success, have tried the system late in the spring, when we know 

 that all the processes of vegetation are sooner developed, and 

 consequently the different parts of regular roots are sooner ob- 

 tained by the coilers. 



But why question the utility of the system before you have 

 found it will not succeed, either when tried early or late? This 

 question, frequently put, I answer by asking in what the utility 

 consists, were I even to allow that the system did partially suc- 

 ceed, when tried, for instance, in the beginning or middle of March ? 

 For the final reception of your plants, you must have a frame or 

 pit, &c. ; and I should like to know if the most strenuous advo- 

 cate of coiling is prepared to show that a pit, &c., appropriated 

 to such a purpose, will insure more profit to the owner than if 

 it had been appropriated to its wonted purposes ; or if, by filling 

 it at random with coiled pots, he could expect to realise any 

 thing like the same weight of grapes which he would expect and 

 obtain from vines planted out, and the tops taken into the pit, 

 frame, &c., in the usual manner ? 



What I consider to be the strongest argument against the 

 utility of this system is, the impossibility of its adoption in ge- 

 neral cases, consistently with the proper management of the 

 plants from which the coilers are taken. I am well aware that 

 many practise the system of allowing some of the shoots to grow 

 till the winter pruning, when they are very likely cut back to less 

 than a third of their length. I will not say any thing of the 

 unscientific nature of such a process, when fruit, and not mere 

 strength of wood, is required. Every person can judge for him- 

 self, who will take the trouble to contrast the fine matured buds, 

 which he cuts away, with the small diminutive ones that he leaves 

 at the bottom of his shoot; which, let him treat ever so carefully, 

 will reward him with little or no fruit for his trouble, if ever 

 they break at all, on account of having been unduly shaded, and 

 deprived of nourishment by the buds now cut away. In fact, I 

 can see no means by which the system can be followed without 

 injuring your established plants, unless when an old branch 

 requires to be cut out; or in those places where the long rod 

 system is followed, when the shoot annually cut out might be 

 so applied, and, from the age of the wood, be much more likely 

 to succeed than young shoots of the previous season. 



Feeling somewhat interested in the subject, I have written to 

 several individuals, and all who have answered my letters inform 

 me of their failures. All my acquaintances in this neighbour- 



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