EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 



67 



They broke as weak as straws, and looked very miser- 

 able till about the end of July, when they showed some 

 signs of making second growths of a more vigorous 

 character than the first. Shortly after this time I dug 

 down to several of the roots I had made the incisions 

 in, and found that, from the lip of each wound nearest 

 the parent stem, a great number of young roots, like 

 porcupine - quills, had started off into the new soil. 

 This was in the summer of 1838, and in 1839 they 

 broke comparatively strong, showing a fair crop of fruit, 

 which they brought to perfect maturity. In 1840, and 

 for seven or eight years afterwards, they bore first-rate 

 crops of excellent grapes, colouring well. They were 

 black Hamburg's. About 1848 they, however, began 

 to indicate that their vigour was on the wane ; and as 

 the house had to undergo extensive repairs, I removed 

 them all to make way for a new border and young 

 vines, except one at the west end of the house, which 

 I kept, partly as a memento, and partly to experiment 

 upon. During the process of removing the old border 

 I had the entire soil and roots removed from the one 

 in question to within 6 feet of its stem. I then re- 

 moved the soil from the bare arms — for roots they 

 could scarcely be termed — to within 3 feet all round ; 

 and after making incisions in them as before, I laid 

 them, radiating from the centre, in the new soil of 

 the border made up for the young vines ; and though 

 the vine looked sickly for a time, and the leaves flagged 

 during sunshine, it soon recovered, and, for the subse- 

 quent six years I had the management of it, bore fine 

 crops of grapes. Of this vinery, and of the particular 

 old vine in question, Mr Eobert Fish thus writes in 

 ' The Cottage Gardener and Country Centleman's Com- 

 panion,' in the number for July 14, 1857, while describ- 



