132 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



this rich soil late in autumn; they were not short, branch- 

 ing, fibry roots, but soft, like the roots of some bulb ; and 

 by the time the action of the leaves had ceased, these 

 roots were anything but ripe, and they all perished 

 during the winter rains, back to the old stem roots from 

 which they sprang. The vines, nevertheless, have a 

 given amount of stored- up sap in them though they have 

 lost their active roots, and they are pruned and started, 

 say, the following February. While this stored-up sap 

 lasts, they grow vigorously enough, but a period arrives 

 when it is exhausted ; and the new sap comes but slowly, 

 for the old roots that remain are just beginning, through 

 the action of the foliage, to start into life a fresh set of 

 young roots, that are able as yet to supply but little. 

 This takes place when the berry is passing through the 

 stoning period — always a crisis with fruit of any kind — 

 and the consequence is a thorough failure of the crop 

 from shanking, either resulting directly from want of 

 proper nourishment at this important period, or from 

 some other cause which springs from this want. The 

 crop of fruit is lost as thus described, but the vines 

 seem in good health, and they make strong roots towards 

 autumn, again to share the fate of their predecessors; 

 and so the round goes on." 



Some fifteen years ago I took the management of a 

 number of vineries, the vines in which corresponded 

 exactly to the above description, and I renewed the 

 whole of the borders, and planted them with young 

 vines. On removing the old borders, they were found 

 to consist of damp solid soil, without any portion of open- 

 ing material, and all the drainage under them was a few 

 inches of ordinary coal-ashes. I did not find a single 

 young fibry root from one end of the range to the other 



