758 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



eighteen inches or two feet in length, diverge from the stem, and supply yoimg wood annually for bear- 

 ing. The summer pruning consists in removing shoots which have no fruit, or are not wanting for the 

 succeeding season ; in topping fruit-bearing shoots, and also those for the succeeding years, when incon- 

 veniently long and straggling . For as by this mode the shoots destined to bear are all cut into three or 

 four ej'es at the winter season, no inconvenience arises from their throwing out laterals near the extre- 

 mities, which stopping will generally cause them to do. This mode is adopted in vineyards on dry rocky 

 situations where they do not run much to wood. In training standard vines, as raspberries, the single 

 stem at bottom is not allowed to exceed six or eight inches in height, and from this two or three shoots 

 are trained or tied to a single stake of three or four feet in length. These shoots bear each two or three 

 bunches within a foot or eighteen inches of the ground, and they are annually succeeded by others which 

 spring from their base ; that is, from the crown or top of the dwarf main stem." This is the mode practised 

 in the north of France and in Germany ; in the south of France and in Italy, the base or main stem is often 

 higher, and furnished with side shoots, in order to afford a greater supply of bearing wood, which is tied 

 to one or more poles of greater height. The summer pruning in this case is nearly the same as in the 

 last. In the winter pruning, the wood that has borne is cut out, and the new wood shortened in cold si- 

 tuations to three or four eyes, and in warmer places to six or eight eyes. 



4831. Formation of vineyards. A vineyard is a collection of standard vines, planted 

 in rovps of a greater or less width, according to the height and mode of training proposed 

 to be adopted ; and according as the soil may be rich and deep, or poor and tliin, or its 

 surface flat or inclined. A square yard of surface to each plant, when tliey are kept low, 

 may be considered as a desirable medium. 



48-32. Where plantations of vines are ?mde on, the sides of very steep hills, it is sometimes customary to 

 form the surface into terraces or horizontal beds rising one above another. The width of these beds or 

 terraces depends on the regular or irregular declivity of the hill. When the declivity is regular and the 

 hill steep, each terrace is narrow and supported by a wall, against which the vines are planted and trained 

 as on low garden- walls or espaliers ; but, in general, the irregularity of the declivity and surfaces of hills, 

 causes a very great inequality in the breadth and height of the terraces, and in these cases the vines are 

 planted as standards, according to the room afforded by the platforms of the terraces. The waUs which 

 support these platforms in vine-countries, are generally too rude to admit of training against them, and 

 therefore one of the standard modes above described is almost alM-ays adopted. 



4833. Sorts of grapes proper for a vineyard. On the continent the vines-reckoned best for making wine 

 are by no means trie most agreeable to eat ; and there is always a clear distinction made between fruits to eat, 

 and fruits for the press, by the nurserymen, who, in general, have only plants of the former sort for sale. 

 The names of vinej'ard-grapes vary in'every district ; so that were it desirous to procure sorts from France 

 or German}', only a general order could be given. In this country, however, it would probably, in the 

 event of plantmg a vineyard, be found preferable to select from the sorts already acclimated, and rendered 

 hardy by many years' culture and propagating from seed, such as the clusters, sweetwaters, csperione, 

 &c. The sorts planted in the vineyard at Painshill, were the Burgundy, or large black cluster, and 

 the miller-grape, or small black cluster. The vineyard-grapes in France, Germany, and Italy, and we are 

 informed, in Spain, Portugal, and every other wine-country, may be considered as varieties or subvarieties 

 of the black cluster ; and the vines which are grown to produce sweet wines, as the Constantia and Malm- 

 sey Madeira, variations of the chasselas or muscadine. 



4834. Maldng of winefro?n grapes. The making of wine is a part of domestic economy that can hardly 

 be considered as included under gardening. We shall, therefore, merely suggest, that where grapes are 

 to be pressed in any quantity, the management of the liquor shoxild not, if posstble, be left to mere empiric 

 practitioners. Some knowledge of the general principles of fermentation will help to guard against acci- 

 dents, and direct in doubtful cases. The assistance, therefore, of a person possessing some knowledge of 

 chemistry, or one who has been concerned in the manufacture of British wines, will be found desirable on 

 such occasions. An excellent paper " On the Processes of Wine-making," will be found in the second 

 volume of the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, by Dr. Macculloch, of Woolwich. jMat- 

 thew-s (in the Hort. Trans, ii.'}, has given a receipt for making a vei-y tolerable sort of red wine from the 

 leaves of the claret grape ; these leaves, it is suggested, might be" employed to give color to ^^-ine pro- 

 duced from certain sorts of white grapes, green gooseberries, or other fruits producing a colorless fermented 

 liquor. 



4835. Insects luhich infest the vine.' The red spider, of which there are many sorts, at- 

 tacks the leaves in sprino-, or early in summer ; increases prodigiously in dry weatlier, and 

 soon damages and destroys the foliage. Speechly says, red spiders " generally reside 

 and breed on the under side of the leaves, and the infested leaves are very distingidshable 

 as soon as they are attacked by them, for the insect wounds the fine capillary vessels with 

 its proboscis, and this causes the upper surface of the leaf to appear full of very small 

 dots, or spots of a light color. "W'lien the acari are very numerous, they work a fine 

 web over the whole under side of the leaf, as also round the edges thereof ; and it is cu- 

 rious en-r>ugh to observe, that they comm^only carry tliis web in a straight line, from one 

 angular point of the leaf to another, on which boundaiy line, in a warm day, they pass 

 and re-pass in very great num.bers. "Watering 

 is the only eiFectual means of destroying ttiis 

 insect." {Tr. on the Vi?ie, 162.) Tiie thrips 

 {Thrips, L. Latr. and Leach.) is more in- 

 jurious to vines in the forcing department 

 than to those in the open air. Hovv^ever, if 

 young shoots chance to receive any injury 

 from late spring frosts, the tender part of the 

 leaf will immediately curl up, and change to 

 a dark -brown color; and in this state, the 

 thrips generally attacks them -with great greedi- 

 ness, especially the white sv.'eetwater and 

 white muscadine kinds. The green fly some- 

 times attacks vines ; but seldom so as ma- 

 terially to injure them. Smoking destroys 



