512 



THE GRAPE. 



The border should be thoroughly prepared previously to planting the 

 vines, by excavating it two feet deep and filling it up with suitable com- 

 post. This is best formed of one-half loamy turf, well rotted by having 

 been previously laid up in heaps (or fresh and pure loamy soil from an 

 old pasture or common) ; one-third thoroughly fermented horse or cow 

 manure, which has lain in a turf-covered heap for three months ; and 

 one-third broken pieces of charcoal and old lime rubbish : the whole to 

 be thoroughly mixed together before planting the vines. 



The vines themselves should always be planted in a border prepared 

 inside of the house ; and in order to give the vines that extent of soil 

 which is necessary for them, the best cultivators make an additional 

 border, twelve or fourteen feet wide outside, in front of the vinery. By 

 building the foundation of the front wall on piers, within a couple of 

 inches of the surface, and supporting the wall above the surface on slabs 

 of stone reaching from pier to pier, the roots of the vines easily pene- 

 trate to the border on the outside. 



The vines should be planted early in the spriug. Two-year-old 

 plants are preferable, and they may be set eighteen inches from the front 

 wall — one below each rafter, or, if the latter are over three feet apart, 

 one also in the intermediate space. 



The pruning and training of the vines we have already described. 

 The renewal system of pruning we consider the best in all cases. The 

 spur system is, however, practised by many gardeners, with more or less 

 success. This, as most of our readers are aware, consists in allowing a 

 single shoot to extend from each root to the length of the rafters ; from 

 the sides of this stem are produced the bearing shoots every year ; and 

 every autumn these spurs are shortened back, leaving only one bud at 

 the bottom of each, which in its turn becomes the bearing shoot, and 

 is again cut back the next season. The fruit is abundantly produced, 

 and of good flavor, but the bunches are neither so large nor fair, nor 

 do the vines continue so long in a productive and healthy state as when 

 the wood is annually renewed. 



The essential points in pruning and training the vine, whatever 

 mode be adopted, according to Loudon, " are to shorten the wood to 

 such an extent that no more leaves shall be produced than can be fully 

 exposed to the light ; to stop all shoots produced in the summer that 

 are not likely to be required in the winter pruning, at two or three 

 joints, or at the first large healthy leaf from the stem where they 

 originate; and to stop all shoots bearing bunches at one joint, or at 

 most two, beyond the bunch. As shoots which are stopped generally 

 push a second time from the terminal bud, the secondary shoots thus 

 produced should be stopped at one joint. And if at that joint they push 

 also, then a third stopping must take place at one joint, and so on as 

 long as the last ter min al bud continues to break. Bearing these points 

 in mind, nothing can be more simple than the pruning and training of 

 the vine." 



When early forcing of the vines is commenced, the heat should be 

 applied very gently for the first few days, and afterwards very gradually 

 increased. Sixty degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer may be the 

 maximum till the buds are all nearly expanded. When the leaves are 

 expanded, sixty-five may be the maximum and fifty-five the minimum 

 temperature. When the vines are in blossom, seventy-five or eighty in 

 mid-day, with the solar heat, should be allowed, with an abundance of 



