292 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



they produce fruit worth eating, even when 

 weather conditions are favourable. 



Soil. — Provided the situation is warm, the 

 leaves freely exposed to light and air, and the 

 roots supplied with a moderate quantity of 

 moisture, the Vine will grow in almost any soil. 

 We have seen it succeed both in strong, deep 

 loam, and in rocky ground thinly covered with 

 poor sandy soil. In the open air, or against a 

 wall, Vines will thrive in any well-conditioned 

 soil that is suitable for fruit-trees generally. 

 The best soil, perhaps, is a rich, mellow loam, 

 and it should be refreshed occasionally with 

 a top-dressing of turfy maiden loam and dung. 

 In gravelly soil mixed with peat the roots of 

 the Vine are not liable to perish from moisture 

 in winter; and having roots fit for action, the 

 plants are prepared to make an earlier growth 

 than those that have nearly all their smaller 

 fibres either destroyed or in bad condition. 



Planting. — The best time to plant Vines 

 against walls or elsewhere in the open ground 

 is in October or November, or in spring, just 

 before the sap begins to rise. The roots should 

 be carefully spread out and covered with rich, 

 turfy loam, made rather fine, then moderately 

 watered, and afterwards mulched. 



The cultivation of the Vine on open walls 

 is perhaps nowhere so carefully attended to as 

 at the village of Thomery, on the banks of the 

 Seine, about five miles from Fontainebleau, and 

 from this neighbourhood Paris is supplied with 

 30,000 lbs. of Grapes daily during the Grape 

 season. We shall therefore briefly state the 

 mode of culture which the industrious inhabi- 

 tants of that village have from long experience 

 adopted. The soil is a light - brown sandy 

 loam; a sample of it, analysed by Professor 

 Solly, gave 81 per cent of silica, 7 of alumina, 

 and only 3^ of organic matter, therefore it had 

 not been highly manured; yet from such soil 

 the Royal Muscadine or Chasselas de Fontaine- 

 bleau Grape is produced of excellent quality. 

 The bunches we saw were only middle-sized, 

 as were also the berries; but these had acquired 

 a fine yellow tinge, indicative of perfect maturit}^, 

 and the quality was excellent. Doubtless this 

 is in a great measure owing to the climate, but 

 much is no doubt due to the system of manage- 

 ment. 



The Vines are trained with two branches 

 extending horizontally, as nearly as possible 

 from the same point, one to the right and the 

 other to the left, and from these the bearing 

 shoots are trained upright (fig. 1074). The 

 distance between the horizontal courses is 18 



inches. At Fontainebleau we observed that 

 the plants were 3 feet apart, and the distance 

 between the courses of horizontals was 2 feet, 

 and these distances are preferable in our soil 

 and climate, in which the Vine makes longer 

 shoots than at Thomery. The length of the 



Fig. i(i74.— Method of training Vine against wall in the open air. 



two horizontals of each Vine is equal to the 

 distance at which the Vines are planted, multi- 

 plied by the number of horizontal courses 

 which the height of the wall will admit; or 

 the length of each horizontal is equal to 

 half that product. A wall 12 feet high will 

 thus admit of five courses; and, planted 3 feet 

 apart, each plant will extend its horizontals 

 15 feet, or 7 J feet on each side, crossing the 

 adjacent upright naked stems. A bearing shoot 

 is allowed to spring from each eye ; it is trained 

 upright, and stopped when it reaches the next 

 horizontal; if laterals pushed, as is likely to be 

 the case in consequence of the stopping, they 

 are cut off above the second leaf. At the 

 winter pruning all the upright shoots are cut 

 back to the lowest two eyes. On the upper 

 one of these the fruit is chiefly borne; but it 

 is completely cut away at the ensuing winter 

 pruning, whilst the other shoot is cut down to 

 its lowest two eyes. If more than two shoots 

 push from the bases of the shoots cut back, 

 they are pinched off close as soon as they can 

 be well laid hold of. The horizontals extend 



