By Mr. John Mearns. 



151 



several buds ; but I suffered none, except the selected 

 one, to remain long after it had made its appearance. 

 The management of the young shoots of the year was, 

 in this and the following seasons, the same as I have, before 

 detailed. 



In the autumn of this, the third season, the lower half of 

 the house was furnished with a crop of ripe Grapes upon the 

 wood of the preceding year, and parallel to it, on each Vine, 

 grew a young shoot, intended to bear the lower crop the 

 next year ; whilst the upper half of the house had single 

 shoots trained from the end of the bearing wood, which 

 shoots were also to bear a crop the next year ; and, besides 

 these, a third shoot on each Vine had been trained from the 

 bottom bud, which I had not removed, and which were 

 about four feet in length, having been treated as the weaker 

 shoots in the second year's management, which I have de- 

 scribed, and to which they were similar. When this half 

 crop was gathered, and the leaves had dropped, I cut off the 

 top leaders level with the uppermost wire of the house, to 

 which they were tied, and the lower leaders level with the 

 middle of the roof, (the top and bottom leaders, or bearing 

 wood for the next season, being each eight feet long,) and the 

 bottom or weak shoot, above described, was cut down to 

 the second or third eye, as the lower shoot had been cut in 

 the preceding winter. All the spurs of the lower part of the 

 shoot, which had now reached the top of the house and had 

 borne the crop of grapes, were cut clean out. The follow- 

 ing was the appearance of the same four Vines, after they 

 had been pruned in the third winter, when they were in a 

 state to produce their full crop in the following season. 



