190 



ON THE AGE OF THE VINE. 



that by the trunk girting eight inches, is meant the 

 main trunk. 



" The Vine has been pruned some weeks : the 

 number of eyes left upon this year's shoots is 

 various in proportion not only to the vigour of 

 the shoot, but of the space also to be filled, up. 

 In most places, from three to five eyes is the 

 general standard ; but there are many shoots with 

 from eight to ten eyes left upon them ; and at the 

 extremities of the Vine, as much of the wood as 

 was perfectly ripe has been left. In this part you 

 have shoots with eighteen, some with twenty-two 

 eyes. Each of these (if one may judge from pre- 

 ceding years) will throw out a shoot, bearing upon 

 an average of the shoots in the whole Vine two 

 clusters and a half ; for the gardener assures me, 

 that the clusters are from one to four on a shoot. 

 Please to observe, likewise, that each shoot on that 

 of the preceding year, which had numerous eyes 

 left on, is not less prolific than the shoots of a 

 smaller fraternity. Had the Vine been always 

 pruned in this manner, and allowed to expand 

 itself (as it has been suffered to do these three or 

 four years past in particular), it is incredible what 

 surface the main stem might have sufficed to 

 cover. 



" The soil is a light, loose, brownish mould, 

 lying about two feet thick on a loose sand, with 

 coarse gravel, and at the depth of twenty feet you 

 come to the water. 5 * 



