544 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



on the soil tliey are planted in, and the climate in which they are kept, than on any me- 

 thods of pruning or training that have been, or ever can be, adopted." In this sentiment, 

 every person of observation who has seen a number of the vineries in this country, or 

 vineyards on the continent, must entirely concur : but as every operation of art is, 

 or ought to be, conducted in a manner suitable to the end in view, it is highly necessary 

 that system should enter into tins as into every thing else. We shall, therefore, give 

 the various opinions of practical men as to training vines in vineries, in chronological 

 series, beginning with Speechly, the Moses, as he may be called, of modern British 

 vine-dressers. 



455 



2966. Speechly s mode of prun- 

 ing and training. Speechly, hav- 

 ing planted a vine against a wall 

 or roof-trellis, cuts it down to 

 two eyes or buds [Jig' 455. a) ; 

 the next winter the shoots of the 

 preceding summer are shortened 

 each to one eye [b] ; two leading 

 shoots are produced, trained up- 

 right during summer, and in the 

 following winter headed down to 

 from three to five feet each, and 

 laid in horizontally parallel to the 

 ground, and about a foot above 

 it (c) ; these main stems pro- 

 duce shoots from every eye, but 

 only a few are selected, which 

 stand from a foot to fifteen inches 

 apai-t, and these are trained up- 

 wards during summer, and in 

 wdnter every other one is cut out 

 to within two or three eyes of 

 the main stem, and the rest 

 shortened to one third of the 

 length of the trellis {d). The 

 following summer, the third, a 

 moderate crop will be produced 

 from the side shoots of the wood 

 of the preceding year, and from 

 tlie spurs on the main stem. In 

 the winter following, the shoots 

 which have produced the fruit 

 are shortened down to two eyes, 

 excepting the leaders to the long 

 shoots, which are left with four 

 or five eyes (e). Next summer, the fourth, the top of the roof, or wall, will be reached 

 by the leading shoots, and the spurs are now allowed to produce each one leader. In 

 winter, both of these leaders are headed down to four or five eyes, and the side shoots, 

 from the old wood, to one or two eyes {f). In the following summer, the fifth, a fuU 

 crop of grapes is produced in every part of the house. This constitutes one course or 

 rotation ; and the next, and all the future courses, extend only to four years, in which 

 the object is to renew the upright bearers every fourth year, the intervening spurs fur- 

 nishing shoots to succeed them. Tliis method is called perpendicular, spur, or Dutch 

 training : but few who adopt it pursue it so regularly as to renew the old upright shoots 

 every fourth year, by which, and for other causes, and cliiefly the small quantity of fruit 

 produced during the first four years, it has fallen into disrepute. 



2967. Abercrotnbie's " methods of priming established vines" admits of much diversity of method, as the 

 plants are in different situations. Without reckoning the cutting down of young or weak plants, alter- 

 nately, to the lowermost summer shoot, which is but a temporary course, three different systems of prun- 

 ing have their advocates. 



2968. The first method is applicable only to vines out of doors ; but it may be transferred to plants in a 

 vinerj' without any capital alteration. In this method, one perpendicular leader is trained from the stem, at 

 the side of which, to the right and left, the ramifications spring. When the plant is established, the imme- 

 diate bearers, or shoots of the growing season, and the mother bearers, or shoots of the last year's growth, 

 are thus managed. Soon after the growing season has commenced, such rising shoots as either are in fruit 

 and fit to be retained, or are eligibly placed for mother bearers next season, are laid in, either horizontally 

 or with a slight diagonal rise, at something less than a foot distance, measuring from one bearing shoot to 

 the next : the rising shoots, intended to form young wood, sliould be taken as near the origin of the 

 branch as a good one offers, to allow of cutting away, beyond the adopted lateral, a greater quantity of 

 the branch, as it becomes old wood ; the new-sprung laterals, not wanted for one of these-two objects, are 

 pinched off. The treatment of those retained, during the rest of the summer, thus differs. As the shoots 

 in bearing extend in growth, they are kept stopped about two eyes beyond the fruit : — the connate shoots. 



