2 30 THE FRUIT GARDEN 



As the young cane makes progress, the vine it supplants must gradually be cut 

 away to make room. By following this plan no loss of fruit will be sustained 

 during the process of converting the single vine into a double one. Or the 

 system can be carried out in a simpler way at the time of planting, by having 

 them twice as far apart as recommended for single-stemmed vines, and the 

 following year when growth commences train two shoots from each instead 

 of one. I think the first plan is to be preferred, as the roof is filled more 

 quickly with fruit-bearing wood, and the vine grown as a single rod will bear 

 heavily for years, and can afterwards be doubled, as stated above, if desired. 



How TO Renovate Old Vines. — ^There are thousands of vines through- 

 out the country whose owners are at a loss to know how to reinvigorate and 

 bring them back to health. The vine is long-sulFering and patient, and will 

 endure much ill-treatment before succumbing. 



It may be well first to draw attention to a few of the causes which 

 most frequently conspire to bring about, not the death (it is very seldom one 

 sees a dead vine), but the unsatisfactory condition of many amateurs' vines. 

 Often the border is at fault ; it is badly drained, the soil is exhausted, or the 

 roots may have entered unwholesome soil beyond the border. A mistake com- 

 monly made in the management of the branches is that of leaving too many 

 spurs on the vine at the time of pruning, with consequent overcrowding of 

 foliage in summer. There must never be less than a foot between each spur; 

 on strong and healthy vines 15 inches should be allowed. The summer shoot 

 issuing from the spur should be stopped at the sixth leaf, and the laterals 

 which issue from the axils of the leaves afterwards should be stopped at the 

 third leaf. As a rule, sub-laterals are allowed by the amateur to run wild, and 

 perhaps are removed once or twice indiscriminately during the season. The 

 vine has no chance of perfecting its main leaves or properly developing its 

 fruit buds under these conditions. Another frequent source of trouble is 

 crowding the vinery with a medley collection of plants,. many of them probably 

 infested with noxious pests. I see no harm in preserving a few bedding plants 

 through the winter, and propagating them in the spring in the vinery if there 

 is no other place available, as they are usually free from insects. It is when 

 an attempt is made to grow a mixed collection of plants in the vinery more 

 or less all the year round, and when a compromise is made between the con- 

 ditions favourable to the vine and the plants, that bad results follow. Now 

 as to the remedies. You may ask one gardener his opinion as to the best 

 remedy to adopt to bring your ill-conditioned vines into health and fertility, 

 and his reply may be, " Pull them up, burn them, and plant young ones." 

 This is all very well. You do not always want to be replanting vines ; it 

 takes at least four years to fill the vinery with grapes. Better advice would 

 be to give some information as to the cause of the failure, and point out 

 remedies which would rejuvenate and permanently re-establish the health of 

 the vines. 



The first thing to do is to examine the roots. Should there be an inside 

 and outside border, then examine the one inside first, and that outside the 

 following year. To do this effectually dig a trench 2 feet wide, deep enough 



