612 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



the other side of the shoots already recom- 

 mended to be laid in, to about eight or twelve 

 eyes, according to the strength of the vine in 

 the one case, and to one bud each in the other. 

 In the fifth spring train in the shoots from these 

 single buds in the same tortuous manner as 

 before. The plant will now have assumed the 

 form which it is permanently to retain, and the 

 manner in which it is trained may be consi- 

 dered as the commencement of a system of 

 alternately fruiting two shoots and training two 

 at full length for bearing-wood in the following 

 year, which method may be continued every 

 year without any alteration, until the capacity 

 of the vine is equal to the maturation of more 

 fruit than can possibly be borne by two single 

 shoots, which on an average may be estimated 

 at sixty pounds' weight annually. Several years 

 must elapse before this will be the case; but 

 when it is, the arms or " horizontal branches " 

 may be lengthened by the training-in of a shoot 

 at their extremities, and managing it in the 

 same manner as when the arms were first 

 formed. It is very advisable, however^ that 

 the vine should not be suffered to extend itself 

 farther on the wall, for in such case the bearing- 

 shoots emitted from the centre are sure to 

 decline in strength, whereas, by confining the 

 dimensions of the vine to a single arm on each 

 side of the stem and each arm to the support 

 and nourishment of two branches only, the 

 very best description of bearing -'shoots will 

 never fail to be generated close at home, and 

 these, as the vine advances in age, will become 

 prolific almost beyond conception. Mr Hoare says 

 he has "often ripened as many as seven full-sized 

 bunches of graj>es off two shoots which have 

 pushed from a single bud on vines managed in 

 this manner." 



Mr Hoare prunes in winter, leaving on each 

 vine no greater number of buds than appears, 

 on an average calculation, to be sufficient to 

 produce as much fruit as the vine is allowed to 

 mature. " Vines thus pruned, with the bear- 

 ing-wood annually adjusted to their respective 

 powers of maturation, being kept within a small 

 compass of the surface of the wall, are easily 

 managed throughout the summer. With re- 

 spect to the number of buds necessary to be 

 left at the autumnal pruning to produce any 

 given weight of fruit, I have found it to be a 

 good general rule, and applicable to all those 

 sorts of grapes usually cultivated on the open 

 wall, to consider every bud (rejecting the two 

 bottom ones on each shoot) as equal to the pro- 

 duction of half a pound's weight of fruit — that is, 

 if the stem of a vine measures 5 inches in girth, 

 its capability is equal to the maturation of 

 twenty-five pounds' weight of grapes, and there- 

 fore the number of buds to be retained after 

 pruning will be fifty." In connection with this 

 part of his theory, he says that, until the stem of 

 the vine measures 3 inches in circumference, no 

 fruit should be taken off it ; and as a rule for the 

 guidance of the pruner, he recommends that 

 the stem of the vine be measured at the autum- 

 nal pruning, and no more buds retained than 

 are supposed necessary to produce the given 

 weight of fmit which corresponds to its girth. 



The proportion above stated, he remarks, would 

 be too great, even in the strongest - bearing 

 sorts; but as accidents frequently happen to the 

 bunches during their early growth, and as there 

 will be in general some buds that will not burst, 

 provision must be made against these casualties, 

 by reserving a greater number of buds than 

 would otherwise be required. The proportion- 

 ate number, therefore, above mentioned, Mr 

 Hoare " has found to answer well, and be suffi- 

 cient to meet all contingencies." 



Mr Hoare has seemingly a great aversion to 

 old wood in any part of the vine, and in his 

 attempt to establish this point, he says : " The 

 old wood of a vine, or that which has previously 

 borne fruit, is not only of no further use at any 

 subsequent period, but is a positive injury to the 

 fertility of the plant. The truth of this remark," 

 he continues, " depends on the fact that every 

 branch of a vine that produces no foliage, ap- 

 propriates for its own support a portion of the 

 juices of the plant that is generated by those 

 branches that do produce foliage." The argu- 

 ments here adduced, in support of the process by 

 which the life of a vine is sustained, are not 

 exactly in accordance with received opinions ; 

 but from them he draws the conclusion, " that 

 every naked branch of a vine, or one that does 

 not directly produce foliage, diminishes the 

 capacity of the plant for the production of young 

 bearing-shoots, inasmuch as it contributes no- 

 thing to the growth of the vine, but, on the 

 contrary, requires to be fed annually with a 

 certain portion of the elaborated juice of the 

 plant, which would otherwise be expended in 

 the enlargement of the diameter of its stem, and 

 thereby the increase of its capacity to mature 

 fruit, and in the extension and multiplication of 

 its roots." Naked branches are, therefore, ac- 

 cording to this doctrine, oonmmers and not pro- 

 ducers; consequently, the great object to be kept 

 in view will be to procure a sufficient quantity 

 of young bearing-wood, with the very least pos- 

 sible quantity of old wood. 



Mr Hoare's notions of vine management are, 

 for the most part, greatly at variance with gene- 

 ral practice, and some of his views are not in 

 accordance with physiological doctrines. In re- 

 gard to the size of the vine, or the quantity of 

 wood that should be allowed to be produced, he 

 says : " It is a very common notion, but an erro- 

 neous one, and one that has no doubt arisen 

 from the universally defective method of prun- 

 ing and managing that plant, whereby the wood 

 is suffered, and indeed encouraged, to extend 

 itself disproportionately beyond the capability of 

 its fruit-bearing power. I scarcely ever allot 

 more than 40 or SO square feet of surface for one 

 vine ; and unless the soil and situation be very 

 superior indeed, a single vine will require a 

 space of time, not less than twenty years at 

 least, before it will possess a sufficient degree of 

 strength to enable it to mature annually a greater 

 quantity of grapes than can be trained on the 

 last-mentioned extent of surface." After allud- 

 ing to the extent of surface usually allotted to 

 the vine, he continues ; " And this seems to be 

 done under the idea that the more wood there 

 is in the vine, the more grapes it will produce. 



