38 



Remarks on the preceding mode^. 



The greater the height at which the Vine is kept, the less it ma- 

 tures well ) especially in a northerly latitude ; it will, however, reach 

 the ripening point if planted in a sandy ground: but that will be vainly 

 looked for in a compact, clayey soil. As far north as Paris, the Vine 

 should be planted in rows rather wide apart, and the stocks kept 

 no higher than 18 or 20 inches. To give full play to the circulation 

 of the air, and to allow the liumidity to be absorbed more easily and 

 promptly, the ranges or rows should be palissaded espalier-like, that 

 the shoots may keep in the hedge-row form. 



To cultivate the Vine in festoons, or the tall-stock training, requires 

 a warm country. The low-stock is more generally suitable, agreeing 

 with all climates, and all soils. The pyramid training has all the ad- 

 vantages of the counter-espalier mode, conducted in the most discrim- 

 inating manner. It requires it is true, a perfect knowledge of the 

 pruning of trees, to attend to it as it should be done ; but happily 

 the Vine is so tenacious of life, that a few mistakes will not be fatal 

 to it. Beside the economy of time in training, the considerable in- 

 crease of the crop, both for quality and quantity, and the remarkable 

 diminution of expense in the cultivation, the pyramid mode permits 

 the Vine-grower to raise, at the same time, the grain necessary for 

 his subsistence, and reduces to one third, the expense of timber for 

 posts. These two latter considerations are important ; in France it 

 is so costly to be obliged to cut saplings for props, that a method by 

 which they can be spared to the forests is very welcome ; and by gi- 

 ving a variety of crops to small vine-yards, the owners will not, in 

 barren grape seasons, be forced to run into debt for their very bread. 



This mode, it may be said, requires time, which is true, especially 

 when setting out on this plan ; but the return is so much more 

 abundant than by the usual methods, and is given so long before 

 the finishing hand has been put to the architecture of the pyramids, 

 that patience becomes less of a burthen than would be expected. 

 It can be easily adapted to Vines kept in counter-espalier ; and to be 

 introduced into Vineyards kept under any other sort of training, costs 

 very little expense ; and even the first year, not a third of the crop 

 is lost by it. To train coimter-espalier Vines in this way, the posts 

 should be set out checker-wise, on the first, third, fifth lines and so 

 on ; the two stems of old wood, that are nearest left and right, are 

 drawn to the post ; and as the shoots of counter-espalier Vines spring 

 from very low, the two lowermost shoots are selected ; one from each 



