8 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



and be well mulched with rotten dung; they will then strike 

 upwards, and produce fine well-ripened grapes in three years, 

 and a good supply of vigorous rods as future wood in the current 

 year. A vine stem should measure three inches in girt before it 

 is suffered to ripen any fruit ; for every pound-weight of grapes 

 cut from a vine before the stem is grown to this thickness, will 

 deprive you of ten pounds in future years.* 



My borders are composed of old mortar, smashed and whole 

 bones, charcoal, bricks broken about the size of a walnut, 

 chopped turf, rotten dung, and leaf mould, in equal portions. 

 No flowers or vegetables should be grown on the borders ; and 

 during the heat of summer, they should be forked over, and 

 liquid manure copiously applied every fortnight, as beneficial 

 to the roots, causing pipers (or small fibres), which produce the 

 fruit ; and preventing the berries from shanking. 



Slowness of growth is the first step towards the production of 

 good bearing wood, and this point should be aimed at by ex- 

 posing the shoots during their growth to the greatest possible 

 amount of light and heat. These all-powerful agents will check 

 the too rapid growth of the shoots, and thereby produce short- 

 jointed wood; and the buds will be large and prominent, dis- 

 tant from each other about three inches, on an average ; but a 

 daily supply of soapsuds and liquid nutriments in a highly 

 concentrated form is needful to effect this. Unless artificial 

 means be vised to make the roots move before the natural time, 

 (the vernal equinox,) an early forced vine will present the very 

 singular anomaly of having produced a mass of foliage, and a 

 matured crop of grapes, before the roots can have contributed 

 anything towards their support. The fruit is then shrivelled and 

 shanked, in consequence of the sap, contained in the trunk and 

 branches, being exhausted. 



Never expose any vines during the winter for the purpose (as 

 some foolishly imagine) of hardening them. All young vines 

 should be raised from eyes and not from layers, as the former will 

 come into bearing one year earlier than the latter. I object 

 much to the sjmr system, on account of the obstruction which 



* Scale of the number of bunches of grapes which any vine can mature in 

 proportion to the circumference of its stem : — 

 Cir. 



3 in. 30 bunches, having 3 long rods, and 2 as future bearing wood. 

 3i in. GO ditto 4 ditto and 4 as ditto. 



4 in. 80 ditto, with 5 rods, and 4 rods as future bearing wood. 



5 in. 100 ditto ditto ditto. 



The stem should be measured just above the ground. O. M, 



