THE GRAPE VINE. 



613 



or that the one will be in proportion to the 

 other. It happens, however, that the fact is pre- 

 cisely the reverse. If a vine be suffered to make 

 a large quantity of wood, it will bear but little 

 fruit ; if it produce good crops of fruit, it will 

 make but little wood : the one checks the other. 

 To permit a vine, therefore, to make a great 

 quantity of wood, under the idea of getting 

 thereby a great quantity of grapes, is completely 

 grasping at the substance and catching the 

 shadow." 



On the Continent, where the vine is grown with 

 advantage on the open walls, various modes of 

 pruning and training are resorted to. That 

 practised at Thomery, near Fontainebleau, a 

 locality famed for the excellence of its grapes, 

 especially the Chasselas de Fontainebleau, which, 

 when ripe, is sent in presents over most of the 

 European continent, is the most systematic, if 

 not the best. The walls against which they are 

 grown are of clay, and about 8 feet in height. The 

 vines are planted several feet from the wall, but 

 with what advantage we could not even learn on 

 the spot. The spur system is followed, and two 

 branches are trained from each stem, as will be 

 seen by our cut, fig. 251, and to these three 



Fig. 251. 



THOMERY MODE OF VINE-TRAINING. 



peculiarities the most of the success is attributed. 

 The following perspicuous description of this 

 peculiar practice is thus given from the " Gar- 

 deners' Monthly Volume," vol. i. p. 139, which 

 is an abbreviated quotation from the " Horti- 

 cultural Society's Transactions," vol. i., and 

 " The Gardeners' Magazine," vol. v. : " The main 

 branches of each particular vine-plant assume 

 above ground the form of the letter T, each arm 

 being 4 feet long, the spurs 7 inches apart, and 

 the upright stem being shorter or longer ac- 

 cording as the two arms, or horizontal branches, 

 are higher or lower on the wall. The horizontal 

 branches are placed 18 inches apart, the lowest 

 being 6 inches from the ground, so that a wall 

 VOL. II. 



8 feet high will contain five lines of mother 

 branches. If the plants are all planted on one 

 side, their stems at the base of the wall will be 

 18 inches apart, but in very poor situations they 

 are planted on both sides of north walls, and 

 the stems of those on the north side brought 

 through holes in the wall to the south side. 

 During the formation of the cordons, the spurs 

 on their arms will successively come into bear- 

 ing, and each, when pruned down at the season 

 to two or three eyes, will produce as many 

 shoots with fruit. Of these, at the next winter's 

 pruning, only the lowest shoot is suffered to 

 remain, and that, at the same time, is to be cut 

 back to one, two, or three eyes, according to its 

 strength. The eyes at the bottom of the spurs 

 are very small, and very much crowded; there 

 are at least six within the space of one-sixth 

 part of an inch. When the spurs are cut to the 

 length of 1 or 2 inches, these small eyes are 

 robbed by those above them ; but when the 

 spurs are cut short immediately above these 

 eyes, they then break, develop themselves, and 

 produce 'good bunches. Of this the vignerons 

 of Thomery are well aware : they never leave 

 their spurs more than an inch long, and some- 

 times less, by which means they always keep 

 the bearing-wood at home; and, extraordinary 

 as it may appear, spurs that have borne for 

 twenty years are no more than an inch long. 

 Should more than two shoots break from a spur, 

 all above that number are suppressed, and not 

 more than two bunches are left on each side of 

 these ; for a moderate crop of good grapes 

 proves of greater value than a more abundant 

 crop of inferior quality. When the space of 

 walling allotted to the five cordons is completely 

 occupied, about 8 feet square, or 64 square feet, 

 are filled, and the produce calculated on is three 

 hundred and twenty bunches ; for each arm 

 being 4 feet long, and furnished with spurs 6 

 inches apart, the two arms will carry sixteen 

 spurs of two eyes each ; and, allowing two bunches 

 to every eye, each tier or cordon will bear sixty- 

 four bunches : the number on five cordons will, 

 consequently, amount to three hundred and 

 twenty. This precise length of 4 feet to each 

 arm has been determined by experience to be 

 the fittest. The vignerons found that when the 

 arms were left of a greater length, the spurs in 

 the centre gradually declined, and good bunches 

 were produced only at the extremities of the 

 cordon ; but when reduced to 4 feet, the spurs 

 on the whole length were perfect, their eyes 

 well filled, and the bunches of fruit fine and 

 well swelled. Training in cordons after this 

 manner affords these additional advantages ; 

 every portion of the wall is equally filled with 

 bearing-wood, and when once the cordons are 

 completed, the pruning and training becomes 

 so uniform and simple that it may be intrusted 

 to any intelligent workman. But what renders 

 this practice of still greater value in this country 

 is, that the fruit on these small spurs always 

 ripens earlier than on the stronger wood." 



The vine produces its fruit on the young 

 wood of the same season, and this is procured 

 from the buds which are placed on the wood 

 made during the previous year, whether it has 



4 i 



