26 



VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 



house was a perfect thicket of wood. I cut back all 

 these vines to within a foot of the front sashes, and 

 trained up two rods from each the following season, 

 fruiting them in 1866 ; and I need not tell those who 

 know that a plant makes roots in proportion to its 

 leaves, that vines treated as I have described had an 

 enormous excess of roots formed in the border, as com- 

 pared with others treated on the one rod and pinching 

 system, and that the bearing-rods they made were in 

 proportion to the extent and vigour of their roots in the 

 soil. I measured one of them in December that, when 

 planted in April, was not thicker than a writing-quill, 

 and I found that it was 3^ inches in circumference, and 

 had ten rods perfectly ripe to the top of the rafters, 

 a distance of 21 feet. If, instead of permanent vigour 

 and productiveness, an immediate return were the object 

 aimed at, I have no hesitation in saying that such a 

 vine would have yielded 50 lb. of grapes the following 

 autumn. 



In planting vines some advocate the laying of a 

 considerable length of the stem in the soil ; I do not. 

 I think it an evil, and that the vigour and extent of 

 roots that a vine will make, depend, not on the length 

 of stem laid in the soil, but on the spread of healthy 

 foliage it can get fairly exposed to light and air. I 

 have planted others in the following way : I cut back 

 the plants to within one inch of the surface of the soil 

 in the pot, allowed them to break and grow a yard of 

 young wood, and then planted them so as to lay an 

 inch of the young wood in the soil, when a tuft of roots 

 starts from the junction of the old and new growths ; 

 but when there is any danger of fungi being in the soil, 

 this plan should not be adopted. In the case of plant- 

 ing young vines struck from eyes the same year, the 



