MANAGEMENT OF VINES, &C. 235 



adopted, together with the almost impossibility 

 of conveying anything like straightforward di- 

 rections for the different varieties, and the 

 various prunings they have to go through. At 

 the winter pruning, it has now become almost 

 an invariable rule to spur indiscriminately to one 

 or two eyes, and for a general rule perhaps it 

 may be the best. This practice has however been 

 adopted, chiefly in consequence of its having 

 been discovered that one of the finest forcing 

 grapes, the " Black Hamburgh," succeeds de- 

 cidedly best by this practice; but this is not the 

 case with every sort ; for some, although they 

 may produce a good supply of bunches, they are 

 very apt not to grow regular and handsome, nei- 

 ther do some sorts ripen so regularly as when 

 produced from the young wood, left three, four, 

 or five buds long according to their strength ; 

 but much depends upon the summer, or rather 

 the spring pruning, (for the first pruning is the 

 principal to insure a crop for the ensuing season ;) 

 at this season it is too common a practice to re- 

 move the greater part of the small shoots which 

 have no fruit on them, while I should wish it to 



