216 Management of the Vine. 



is less an object than with those under glass, consequently, 

 more space is generally allowed them to produce leaves, while, 

 from the influence of light acting upon them directly, much 

 less foliage is required to produce the same effects ; and the 

 greater breadth of foliage plants generally develope in the 

 deteriorated light under glass is probably an effort to counter- 

 balance, in some measure, its inferior quality. 



We may often considerably deviate from the method adopted 

 by unassisted nature in the culture of plants; still, studying the 

 nature of a plant in that condition is likely to afford hints 

 tending to insure success ; and here the natural method of 

 bearing of the vine would point out a mode the very reverse 

 of close-stopping, as the fruit is invariably produced within 

 a few eyes of the preceding year's wood, while an indefinite 

 quantity of foliage is afterwards produced to mature it, and 

 contribute by its caterings to the growth of the plant. It has 

 again and again been shown, that the removal of leaves as pro- 

 duced is the most certain of all methods to reduce in vigour, 

 and ultimately to destroy, the plant so treated. It is very evident 

 that without frequent stopping, and regulating of the summer 

 shoots in a vinery, the whole would soon become a tangled 

 mass of confusion, which would, by creating darkness, produce 

 the very evils intended to be cured ; but, without leaving enough 

 to do this, as much as can be judiciously retained ought by 

 every means to be fostered, as the best (or in early forcing the 

 only) way of sustaining, rather than the means of expending, 

 the energies of the plant. But, even supposing plants to be fed 

 solely from the root, it requires far greater exertion to produce 

 the fresh leaders necessary by continual stopping, than to go on 

 to any reasonable extent in the addition to that already started : 

 to prove this, decapitate a plant barely able to exist, and its 

 destruction is almost certain to follow, being previously in a 

 condition to prolong existence by means of a few leaves, but 

 unable, these destroyed, to produce more. 



Plants under glass depend more upon their leaves, and less 

 upon their roots, than those in the open air, from the possibility 

 of maintaining around them a continually feeding, instead of an 

 occasionally exhausting, atmosphere ; this alone most assuredly 

 supplies the bulk of their food, if it does not, why so strenuously 

 endeavour to keep up an atmosphere in which food abounds? 

 otherwise, this would be of minor importance. There is pro- 

 bably no plant less dependent upon its roots than the vine. 

 I recollect seeing somewhere a statement of repeated trials, 

 tending to show that the fruit was nearly matured before the 

 roots became excited ; and, in early forcing, I am apt to think, 

 this is always the case, else the covering of the border with 

 hot dung or materials to keep it warm and dry would be an 



