206 



FRUITS. 



[chap. 



it out into the border opposite, sink a pretty large flower-pot 

 into the border, place the cut part of the shoot into the flower- 

 pot three parts filled with earth, put a nice straight stick down 

 into the flower-pot at the same time, put a peg on the wall side 

 of the pot to prevent the shoot from rising up, tie the top of the 

 shoot to the stick, then fill the pot and the hole full of earth, and 

 press it down well so as to form a little dish to hold the water. 

 Soon after this is done, which ought to be in the month of 

 February, cut the fore part of the shoot ofi* to within a joint or 

 two of the ground, tie it firmly to the stick ; and, when it sends 

 out its shoots, tie one of them to the stick, and cut the other 

 away. In the fall of the year, cut off the back part of the shoot 

 which attaches the tree against the wall, dig up the pot, and you 

 have a vine to remove to what spot you please, to be transplanted 

 by merely turning the ball out of the pot, just as you would in the 

 case of a pot of cucumbers or melons. When transplanted thus 

 in the fall, or any time before the middle of February, cut the 

 vine down to within one or two buds of the ground, and then you 

 begin to train as hereafter to be directed. The other way of 

 propagating vines is by cuttings. You cut ofl", before the middle 

 of February, a piece of a shoot which came out the last summer : 

 this cutting should, if convenient, have, an inch or two of the last 

 year's wood at the bottom of it ; but this is by no means abso- 

 lutely necessary. The cutting should have four or five buds or 

 joints ; make the ground rich, move it deep and make it fine. 

 Then put in the cutting with the setting stick, leaving only two 

 buds, or joints, above ground ; fastening the cuttings w^ell in the 

 ground. Or, another, and, I think, a better, way of propagating 

 vines by cuttings, is, to take in February a bud of the last year's 

 wood, cutting all wood away except about half an inch above and 

 half an inch below the bud, and shaving off the bark, and a little 

 way into the wood straight down this inch-long piece, only let this 

 shaving be on the side opposite to the bud. Bury the whole two 

 inches deep, in a largish pot filled with good mould, keeping the bud 

 in an upright position. Do not mind covering the bud over : it will 

 shoot up through the mould, and the place behind it, from which 

 you cut out the slice of bark and wood, will send out vigorous 

 roots : and then, as to keeping it cool, see CUTTINGS, under 

 the head of Propagation, in this Chapter. As to the training 

 and pruning of vines, I have, in my book on American Gardening, 



