THE KITCnKN-GAEDEN. 33 



every vine one hundred and twenty-eight bahches and the eight vines, 

 five hundred and twelve ; and, possibly, nay, probably, so many pounds 

 of grapes ! Is this incredible ? Take then, this well-known fact, that 

 there is a grape-vine, a single vine, with only one stem,in the Queen of 

 England's gardens at her palace of Hampton Court, which has, for per- 

 haps half a century, produced on an average, annually, a ton of grapes ; 

 that is to say, 2,240 pounds avoirdupois weight. That vine covers a space 

 of about forty feet in length and twenty in breadth. Aiid your two trellises 

 being together one hundred and twenty-eight feet long and four deep, 

 would form a space of more than half the dimensions of the vine of 

 Hampton Court. However, suppose you have only a fifth part of what 

 you rnight have, a hundred bunches of grapes are worth a great deal 

 more than the annual trouble, which is, indeed, very little. Fig 4 shows 

 a vine in summer. You see the four shoots bearing, and four other 

 shoots coming on for the next year, from the butts left at the winter 

 pruning, as at b. These four latter you are to tie to the bars as they 

 advance on during the summer. When winter comes again, you are to 

 cut off the four shoots that sent out the bearers during the summer, and 

 leave the four that grew out of the butts. Cut the four old shoots that 

 have borne, so as to leave but one bud at the butt. And they will then 

 be sending out wood while the other four will be sending out fruit 

 And thus you go on, year after year, for your life ; for, as to the vine, it 

 will, if well treated, outlive you and your children to the third and even 

 thirtieth generation. I think they say that the vine at Hampton Court 

 was planted in the reign of King William. During the summer there 

 are two things to be observed, as to pruning. Each of the last year's 

 shoots has thirty-two buds, and, of course, it sends out thirty-two shoots 

 with the grapes on them, for the grapes come out of the two first fair 

 buds of these shoots. So that here would be an enormous quantity of 

 wood, if it were all left to the end of summer. But this must not be. 

 When the grapes get as big as peas, cut off the green shoots that bear 

 them at two buds' distance from the fruit. This is necessary in order to 

 clear the vine of confusion of branches, and also to keep the sap back 

 for the supply of the fruit. These new shoots that have the bunches 

 on, must be kept tied to the trellis, or else the wind would tear them off. 

 The other thing is, to take care to keep nicely tied to the bars the shoots 

 that are to send forth bearers the next year ; and, if you observe any 

 little side-shoots coming out of them, to crop these off as soon as they 

 appear, leaving nothing but the clear, clean shoot. It may be remark- 

 ed, that the butt, as at b, when it is cut off the next time, will be longer 

 by a bud. That will be so, but by the third year the vine will be so 

 strong, that you may safely cut the shoots back to within six inches of 

 the main trunk, leaving the new shoots to come out of it where they 

 will ; taking care to let but one grow for the summer. If shoots start 

 out of the main trunk irregularly, rub them off as soon as they appear, 

 and never suffer your vine to have , any more than its regular number 

 of shoots. In cases where grapes are to be grown against houses, or to 

 be trained over bowers, the principle is the same though the form may 

 differ. If against the side of a house, the main stem of the vine might, 

 by degrees, be made to go, I dare say, a hundred feet high. Suppose 



