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XL. On the Cultivation of the Vine. By Mr. John Smith, 

 Gardener to D. Alexander, Esq. St. Matthew's] Ipswich. 

 Communicated by the Ipswich Horticultural Society. 



Read August 16, 1831. 



1 hat the culture of the Vine forms a very important part of a 

 gardener's business, no one, I think, will attempt to deny ; and, as 

 it is a plant which requires the free use of the knife, great variation 

 in the mode of pruning is in use by different practitioners, with 

 which it is not the intention of this communication to interfere, 

 because differences in local circumstances frequently demand of 

 the operator a variation in his practice. Notwithstanding this, 

 every one has a right to exercise his own judgment, and make use 

 of the one he considers best. In claiming this right for myself, I 

 am free to acknowledge, that, upon an average of circumstances, I 

 am decidedly in favour of the long running system, acknowledging, 

 at the same time, it has its objectionable points. The principal of these 

 is, that, in an early forcing house, where the shoot has been laid in 

 its whole length, of perhaps from fifteen to fifty buds, there is great 

 uncertainty in such shoot bursting its eyes from the one end to the 

 other ; nothing being more common than a destitution of both fruit 

 and foliage in the lower part of the vine, while the upper part is 

 crowded to excess with both. Authors have recommended different 

 operations for the prevention of this evil, such as serpentining, dis- 

 budding, &c. ; and the same have been acted upon by many prac- 

 titioners, but, ending without success, they have, where early forcing 

 was required, laid aside the whole system, and for it substituted one 

 in which they possessed but little confidence as to the crop the fol- 

 lowing season. For myself, believing the merits of the running 



