444 THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. [jVoV. 



growing. I have," lie says, " an experiment of this kind now 

 in progress in my garden. Within a few years past, I have 

 gradually trained bearing branches of a small black cluster 

 grape, to the distance of nearly fifty feet from the root, and . 

 find the bunches every year grow larger and ripen earlier, a; 

 the shoots continue to advance," 



According to Knight's theory of the circulation of the sap 

 the ascending sap must necessarily become enriched by the 

 nutritious particles it meets with in its progress through the 

 vessels of the alburiuun ; " but I suppose," he adds, " that 

 there are certain limits, beyond which the sap would be so 

 loaded with nutriment, that it could not freely circulate." 



In i)runing the vine at any season, or in any way, it is ne- 

 cessary to make the cut at least half an inch above the eye 

 from whence the shoot is expected to spring ; and it must be 

 done in a sloping direction, to prevent the lodgment of mois- 

 ture, which might tend to bring on decay, and consequently 

 the ruin of the bud or embryo shoot. When the operation of 

 pruning is completed, the shoots should be neatly nailed again 

 to the walls, and they will require no farther care till the sea- 

 son of summer-pruning arrives. 



In regard to the method of training and fastening the shoots 

 of vines on the roofs of cottages, Mr. Latham of Aylesbury, 

 recommends the following plan. He says, in the Gardener's 

 Magazine, that gardeners and others are often deterred from 

 training trees over slate and tile roofs, from the expense and 

 trouble of trellis-work ; but, by following the simple method 

 attempted to be shewn on the annexed sketch, slating and 

 tiling may soon be covered with the rich clothing of the 

 grape-tree. 



