I06 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



minutes it rose to 60°. I regularly cut grapes in April 

 from the vines in this border, with all the roots outside 

 the vinery, and never applied any other means of 

 heatinff. 



KENOVATING EXHAUSTED VINES. 



Vines are not unfrequently injured by cropping them 

 too heavily for a series of years. This is apparent in 

 the Aveakly character of their growth and diminutive 

 grapes. Where the border is considered in a sufficiently 

 good condition not to require renewing, the best treat- 

 ment for vines thus broken down is either to forego a 

 year's crop altogether, or to crop them very lightly for a 

 year or two. At the same time, the surface of the 

 border can be dealt with as I have described at page 

 104, and the vines can be otherwise fed. While under- 

 going this process, they should be encouraged to make 

 as much foliage as space will allow. 



Exhaustion of vines from crowded training and close 

 stopping is sometimes met with in its worst forms. As 

 has already been referred to, the rods of vines should 

 never be trained closer than 3 feet apart, and the fruit- 

 bearing spurs not closer than 16 to 18 inches. I have 

 seen, in conjunction with close training, the fruit-bear- 

 ing wood pinched at the bunch, or just one joint beyond 

 it. This, with anything like heavy cropping, is certain 

 in a very few years to cripple the vines. They are in 

 fact smothered, and worked hard into the bargain. To 

 put fresh vigour into such vines, cut the superfluous rods 

 out, to give those left more room, and let the laterals 

 grow two or three joints beyond the bunch. 



The premature destruction of foliage is another fertile 



