470 



GROWING THE GRAPE ON OPEN WALLS, 



.51bs., pinch them off as soon as they appear, or as soon as the berries are set. 

 Supply the plant with liquid manure during the summer; stop the shoots in 

 the first week of September, and after the fruit is gathered cut back the 



shoots at / and g in fig. 853, to within 

 a foot or J 8 inches of the main stem, 

 and cut the others to the lowermost 

 bud, as at e and h in fig. 353. The vine 

 is now prepared for being treated ac- 

 cording to a regular system, which 

 consists in " alternately fruiting two 

 shoots, and training two at full length 

 for bearing wood in the following 

 ^ ^^""^^ year." Mr. Hoare considers it ad- 



visable not to let the vine extend 



'L/^ itself farther on the wall, but, instead 



Fig. 353. Mr. Hoare's system of training of this, tO plant a sufficient number 

 estabimed. plants to cover the w^all or house, 



with plants having two arms, as in the figures 854 and 855, and seen more in 

 detail in fig. 348 ; the only difference being, that in the latter figure the bear- 

 ing wood is kept quite short. Vines treated in the manner recommended by 

 Mr. Hoare, with arms each 2| feet in length, may have the bearing shoots 

 of any length under 8 feet or 10 feet ; and as the annual increase in the 

 girth of its stem will be about ^ an inch, it may be allowed to mature an 

 additional 5 lbs. of fruit annually, till the produce amounts to 60 lbs., which 

 is the greatest quantity which will be produced annually from 50 square feet 

 of walling. 



985. In training the vine on the walls of cottages, exactly the same system 

 ought to be pursued as in training it against walls, with these differences, that 

 a greater length of stem will generally be required, and that the length of 

 the arms will vary exceedingly. In order, however, to equalise the pro- 

 duction of fruit, and maintain a sufficient degree of vigour in the vines, the 

 length of the bearing wood ought to be shortened in proportion as the length 

 of the arms is increased beyond 2^ feet each from the main stem. It is of 

 no great consequence, as Mr. Hoare observes, what the length of the stem 

 of a vine may be before it reaches the point where the arms originate, and 

 which Mr. Hoare terms the fruiting point ; and this length of stem, even if 

 it should be 20 feet, or 30 feet, can easily be attained in three years by not 

 cutting off more from the extremity of every year's shoot than what may not 

 be thoroughly ripened. 



986. The appearance of a portion of the front of a house covered with vines 

 in Mr. Hoare s manner is shown in fig. 354, in which there are seven dif- 

 ferent plants, marked a to ^ in the figure. The plant a has a long stem, and 

 arms rather shorter than usual for covering a portion of the wall equal to the 

 height of the bed-room windows ; h covers a space equal to the height of the 

 parlour windows ; c covers the space between the parlour and the bed-room 

 windows : it has arms exceeding the usual length, every arm bearing shoots 

 in the Thomery manner ; d has a very short stem, and long arras, with 

 short bearing shoots, for covering the space between the sill of the parlour 

 windows and the plinth ; e has a stem which reaches above the bed-room 

 windows, with very long arms and short shoots, in the Thomery manner, 



