386 JOUEXAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
VINES IN THE OPEX AIR. 
By Mr. H. M. Tod. F.E.H.S. 
In my previous paper on the growth of open-air Vines (see page 155) I 
reserved the question of how to prune. Although this is a separate 
subject, it will be found to be closely related to the other one of when to 
prune. The governing principle, as I suggested, should be the preser- 
vation of the health and strength of the Vine itself. Perhaps it was only 
by carelessness that many of the brandy Vines in the two Charentes 
had attained to 200 years of age at the advent of the phylloxera ; but I 
for one am disposed to ascribe much of the specially fine quality of the 
old cognacs to their being largely the product of old Vines. This of 
course does not touch the peculiar and inimitable character of Cognac 
brandy, which distinguishes it from and above all other spirits^. And so 
I say that it is well deserving of consideration whether the Vine should not 
be managed with more attention to its general wellbeiug. and therefore 
giving somewhat less to the immediate prospect of what I have already 
ventured to call a greedy crop. 
Thinking of those departments of France which produce the finest 
wines and brandies, I am impressed with the consideration that they not 
only need to maintain their production but to maintain their reputation. 
I rejoiced vrith. the producers when I saw the great success attending 
the renewal of the vineyards by grafting the favourite local Vines on 
American stocks ; but almost as soon as this was evidenced, it also 
became plam that there was another result. This was the great increase 
in the production of wine — a good thing jjer se. but suggestive of the 
questions : "Will it last ".' Is the quality as good a< in the great preceding 
years ? Will the demand fVn- these wines, and the prices they fetch, be 
maintained ? He would be a bold man who should answer any of these 
questions in the affirmative : but I do not wish to labour the point. My 
object is to draw attention to it. and hivite criticism and reply, especially 
as I know those who are engaged in this industry are quite ready to 
justify the old and time-out-of-mind mode of cultivation. Still every 
method of treating Vines cannot be best, and it should be worth the 
while of reasonable and interested people to consider any plan that is not 
merely well meant, but probably true to nature. 
To return to the question of how to prune. I will ask my readers to 
remember that although we are dealing with " a trailing, deciduous, 
hardy shrub," we are also deahng with it as one — perhaps the only one 
— capable of becoming a tree, and also of outliving every other tree. It 
may give a special interest to my subject if I suppose that some Mnes 
planted in Britain during the Roman occupation might, with the neces- 
sary care, be living still, and therefore older than the 1,500-year-old 
Berkshire yews, or those 1,000-year-old ones elsewhere. We do not 
know — at least I do not — how old the " Miller's Burgundy " was that 
Sir Joseph Banks discovered in an ancient vmeyard at Tortworth, in 
Gloucestershire. 
