VINES IN THE OPEN AIR. 
387 
Deciding at once that the Vine should be treated as a plant having 
the greatest expectancy of longevity, I have been forced to adopt tha 
"long rod " system of pruning, which is associated with the teaching of 
my favourite author, Clement Hoare. In doing so I am denying the 
supposed advantages of the extension theory. It is of course possible 
that I may have had very bad luck in my observation of " extension " 
Vines. Nevertheless, without spending time in actually looking for them, 
I have, I suppose, seen a much larger number of Vines than most people 
have, and then always made an exact examination of their condition. 
Generally these Vines — nearly always trained on walls — have been con- 
spicuous for their comparative barrenness, their fruit, when worth 
mention, being confined to the extremities of the branches. Now, if this 
was a necessity, there would be nothing more to be said. But even then 
the quantity of wood in proportion to the fruit has often been remarked 
on, and this has led to proposals for grafting in short sections of young 
fruiting wood as low down as possible, both for sake of crop and also for 
appearance. 
A good idea of the clogging effect of extended old wood in a Vine is 
got by referring to Hoare's description of it as " dowager wood." It does 
nothing for its living. If insects want bed, board, and lodging, there they 
are well and constantly supplied, because the accumulated dead bark is 
there, retained apparently expressly for their benefit. I have often seen 
from ten to twenty yards of old wood in an English wall Vine that would 
certainly have been twice or thrice as fruitful with only five feet of it ; 
and those five feet horizontal and close to the ground. The true how 
in Vine pruning in the open air is to retain the smallest number of inches 
of old wood that will produce the crop, which on walls and for sixteen 
years can be attained with two fruiting canes, alternating with two 
young ones which will take their turn the following year, when the first 
two are spur pruned (in October) to the lowest eye. Hoare says that in 
the sixteenth year his Vines produced 60 lb. of ripe Grapes, and that it 
was only then that it might appear necessary to train in some more 
" old wood " on each arm or branch which I have already spoken of, and 
which would increase their joint length to seven and a half feet, which 
would before long increase the crop (with more certainty than any other 
fruit crop) to 90-100 lb. In viewing the matter in this way I assume 
that I have the reader's assent assured, that we treat open-air Vines with 
an intelligent understanding of their nature and powders, and hardly ever 
referring to the usual treatment of them as exotics under glass. 
Before passing from this phase of my subject I will ask my readers to 
remember that this dowager wood, the intimate and necessary sequel to 
extension, should never be thought of as harmless, or even as a neces- 
sary evil. It takes toll not only of the ascending sap, and so directly 
defrauds the canes or fruiting shoots, but it does the same to the 
descending sap, and so defrauds the roots of what should be theirs. 
As to the roots themselves, the subject is too large for me to do more 
here than to note a cardinal error which is so common that I do not 
believe, if I had kept a record of the instances I have noticed, it has 
been avoided once in fifty times. I refer to the need a wall Vine has to a 
space to itself in the ground, neither flower nor shrub, nor shadow if 
