of The vine. 



65 



experienced, are greatly preferable to those raised 

 by cuttings in the common way, as they have more 



self have recommended it : it may, however, not improbably 

 have occurred to others who may have practised it, as well as 

 ourselves. What first suggested it to us to try it, was, that we 

 found cuttings, with two or three eyes to them, planted in the 

 common way, which was the way we first raised them in pots 

 of earth, and plunged into the tan, one eye being left above 

 the earth, were not only troublesome from their great length, 

 but that the eye above ground either dried up entirely, or shot 

 weakly at best, and also often died away again afterwards, 

 whilst the buds that were covered with earth got up and throve 

 much better. This seemed to say, let the bud intended to 

 grow be covered. We also observed, that few or no roots 

 shot from any part hut the farthest or lowest extremity of the 

 cutting, so that all the intermediate parts seemed to be of little 

 or no use, provided the roots would shoot equally well from 

 the extremity, when shortened to one eye only; and to be 

 satisfied that t|ie joint, immediately below the eye, is desirous 

 of throwing out roots for the use of that eye, one need only 

 look at the roots which are thrown out in several parts of the 

 Vines that are growing vigorously in a hot-ho\ise, which, very 

 manifestly, I think, show that they belong to the eye, or branch 

 proceeding from the eye, immediately next above them. All 

 these together made us think it very likely that the method we 

 now use would succeed, and we had already got into the way 

 of planting the cuttings in the tan first, rather than in pots of 

 earth, from the beginning, finding, by experience, as well as 

 learning from others, that most things would begin to strike 

 much more readily, as well as more certainly and kindly in 

 that manner, than the other. The cumbersomeness of a 

 cutting of fifteen or eighteen inches long, that no pot almost 

 will contain, was a thing one would wish to get rid of. The 

 experiment was easy to try, and no loss if it did not succeed ? 

 we therefore made the experiment, and in three or four years ? 



