366 



OASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



five or more feet, it is good practice to stop it. This 

 plumps up tlie buds behind right back to the base of 

 the shoot, if it has not run too far. At the winter 

 pruning the shoots may be left intact, or cut back 

 a third, one-half, or two-thirds, according to the 

 distance between the Vines, space to be filled, &c. 

 The next year all the buds left may be allowed to 

 break into shoots, and trained vertically up the wall. 

 Or, more probably, every other bud, or two out of 

 three, may be rubbed off, and the shoots from those left 

 trained at right angles with the horizontal branch. 

 The vertical shoots should hai41y be closer than 

 eighteen inches ; two feet would probably be better. 

 So soon as these shoots make two feet, or at moat a 

 yard of wood, they should be stopped. From this 

 stage it would only be needful to extend the vertical 

 ■branches at any ratio of progress thought best, 

 until the summit of the waUs or dwelling-house 

 were reached. 



The horizontal method of training the Grape-vine 

 on walls, fences, and dwelling-houses, hardly differs 

 from that already described and illustrated for Pears. 

 Horizontal branches are swept across the waU at 

 any convenient distance, from eighteen inches to 

 three or five feet, and from these vertical branches 

 are led up at a suitable distance, as in vertical 

 training, until the next cross-branch is reached. 

 Each of these vertical branches may be spurred 

 in from base to summit, and kept so dui-ing the life 

 of the branch, or of the plant. Or greater vitality 

 and variety may be infused alike into the Vine and 

 its produce, by cutting half the vertical branches 

 right out annually, and thus alternating a bearing 

 rod and a young shoot all over the area of the Vine. 

 No bearing rod would thus bear more than once, and 

 the whole Vine would be converted into a series of 

 short rods, producing a crop of wood and of fruit 

 alternately. This would get rid of the stunting 

 effects, of close spurring — often, however, most 

 essential to fertihty in the open air — and would 

 encourage far more growth than would be possible 

 under the close-spur system. 



The stopping and pruning of Vines in the open 

 air are far more simple and easy operations than the 

 same processes under glass. Vigorous disbudding 

 should be practised so soon as the berries are set. 

 Long before this all weakly and worthless buds 

 should be rubbed off, and the crowded clusters of 

 buds or branohlets thinned out. One fair bunch to a 

 spur, or at most two, where the spurs are rather 

 wide asunder, as is the case at times under the long 

 or short rod system of pruning and training, yield a 

 full crop. 



Soon after the berries begin to swell, thin out 

 every other one, or two or three to one left, accord- 

 ing to variety, perfection of setting, &c. This will 



permit the berries to swell to a fair average size, 

 and immensely improve the quality of the Grapes. 

 Grapes grown for wine need not be thinned, though 

 it would pay well to thin those, thus largely increas- 

 ing the percentage of juice to waste. Stop the 

 fruiting shoots two, or at most three leaves beyond 

 the bunch. This will greatly enlarge the foliage 

 in close proximity to the fruit, and thus provide it 

 with better supplies of food. Train in neatly the 

 leading and young shoots for next year ; cut these 

 back, if needful, to afford more light, heat, and air 

 to the ripening fruit. 



As they approach maturity protect from birds, 

 flies, or other vermin, or cut with a portion of wood 

 attached, and keep in a cool, sweet, fruit or other 

 room until wanted. 



The Vines may be pruned so soon as the fruit is 

 gathered, early pruning being, on the whole, l)est 

 adapted for Vines ia the open air in this country. 



Vines in what are called ground Vineries are mostly 

 trained to a raU within a foot, eighteen inches, or 

 two feet from the ground. The ground Vinery is a 

 triangular roof of glass, two or more feet wide at the 

 base, and eighteen or more inches high, set upon 

 one or more bricks laid along either side in a 

 continuous line, or three or four bricks at regular 

 distances in the length of the Vinery, according 

 as more or less heat is desired. A continuous 

 line of bricks would make the sides of the Vinery 

 nearly air-tight, while a few piers would convert the 

 interstices between into open ventilators. The tops 

 are not lifted off unless to afford the necessary 

 attention to the Vines. Even this may be rendered 

 unnecessary by making one side of the Vinery 

 movable. 



It is astonishing what a fostering and forwarding 

 power these ground Vineries exert when placed 

 across a sloping bank, with a rapid pitch to the 

 south. They may be placed in rows across the bank 

 at intervals of six, nine, or twelve feet, according 

 to their width. Many varieties of Grape ripen well 

 beneath these useful contrivances, which fail to ripen 

 on southern or western walls. 



Grapes may also be ripened on rails as above, 

 without the aid of ground Vineries, in warm and 

 sheltered localities, and the writer has seen an entire 

 border twelve feet wide, covered with cordon Vines 

 at distances of six feet apart, and nine inches from 

 the ground, that ripened well during most seasons. 



A yet simpler method of growing Grape-vines in 

 the open air consists in planting and treating them 

 exactly as Easpberries. (See Easpeerries.) A 

 south border, backed by a waU ten or twelve feet 

 high, furnishes the best site for such a Vineyard 

 in the open. True, such Vines very seldom ripeti 

 fruit of large size. But such hardy and useful 



