t7G 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Oct. 



this method is not always found to succeed, in consequence of 

 the young wood not becoming sufficiently ripened during au- 

 tumn ; consequently, in this country, little dependence can be 

 placed upon it, from a similar cause. 



J. Scton, Esq., in a communication to the London Hort. 

 Soc, published in their Transactions, gives the following sci- 

 entific method of training the vine, and which he has practised 

 in his garden with success. 



*' The vine having, like other trees, a tendency to produce 

 its most vigorous shoots at the extremities of the branches, and 

 particularly so at those which arc situated the highest, it gene- 

 rally happens, when it is trained, as is most frequently done, 

 across and upwards, from the front to the back of the house, 

 that the greater portion of the fruit is borne near the top, 

 while the lower parts are comparatively barren. This takes 

 place whether the branches be made to consist chiefly of vigo- 

 rous terminal shoots, preserved at considerable icngth, or the 

 leading shoots be kept short, and lateral spurs be left for 

 the production of the fruit; but in the latter case the evil 

 exists in a smaller degree : for the spurs, or short lateral 

 branches, divert the sap in its ascent, producing, by means of 

 its flowing to their extremities, an approximation to the effect 

 of long branches. The same inconvenience would occur, to a 

 certain extent, if the vines were trained in a like manner in 

 the open air, but it is greatly augmented in a house, in con- 

 sequence of the air being much hotter, as every one knows, 

 at the top than below. Having observed that the fruit pro- 

 duced on the vigorous shoots, which usually grow at the ex- 

 tremities of the long branches, is generally more abundant, 

 and of a finer quality, than that produced on the short lateral 

 ones, I was desirous to promote the growth and preservation 

 of the former ; but the usual mode of training the branches 

 across the house and upwards being subject to the objection 

 above mentioned, and little scope being afforded for it in a 

 house of small dimensions, I thought," he says, " I should 

 obviate these inconveniences in a great measure, and attain 

 another object, presently to be mentioned, by training the 

 branches in a horizontal direction, and keeping the whole of 

 the fruit-bearing part of each tree nearly on the same level.'* 



