THE GRAPE. 
3DS 
m all cases. The spur system is, however, practised by many 
gardeners, with m>re or less success. This, as most of onr 
readers are aware, o insists in allowing a single shoot to extend 
from each root to the length of the rafters ; from the sides of this 
stem are produced the bearing shoots every year ; and every 
autumn these spurs are shortened back, leaving only one bud 
at the bottom of each, which in its turn becomes the bearing 
shoot, and is again cut back the next season. The fruit is 
abundantly produced, and of good flavour, but the bunches are 
neither so large nor fair, nor do the vines continue so long in a 
productive and healthy state as when the wood is annually re- 
newed. 
The essential points in pruning and training the vine, what- 
ever mode be adopted, according to Loudon, “ are to shorten the 
wood to such an extent that no more leaves shall be produced 
than can be fully exposed to the light ; to stop all shoots pro- 
duced in the summer that are not likely to be required in the 
winter pruning, at two or three joints, or at the first large 
healthy leaf from the stem where they originate ; and to stop 
all shoots bearing bunches at one joint, or at most two, beyond 
the bunch. As shoots which are stopped, generally push a 
second time from the terminal bud, the secondary shoots thus 
produced should be stopped at one joint. And if at that joint 
they push also, then a third stopping must take place at one 
joint, and so on as long as the last terminal bud continues to 
break. Bearing these points in mind, nothing can be more 
simple than the pruning and training of the vine.” 
When early forcing of the vines is commenced, the heat 
should be applied very gently, for the first few days, and after- 
wards very gradually increased.' Sixty degrees of Fahrenheit’s 
thermometer may be the maximum, till the buds are all nearly 
expanded. When the leaves are expanded sixty-five may be 
the maximum and fifty-five the minimum temperature. When 
the vines are in blossom, seventy-five or eighty, in mid-day, 
with the solar heat should be allowed, with an abundance of 
air, and somewhat about this should be the average of mid-day 
temperature. But, as by far the best way of imparting infor- 
mation as to the routine of vine culture under glass is to pre- 
sent a precise account of a successful practice, we give here 
the diary of 0. Johnson, Esq., of Lynn, Mass., as reported by 
him in Hovey’s Magazine. Mr. Johnson is a very successful 
amateur cultivator, and we prefer to give his diary rather than 
that of a professional gardener, because we consider it as likely 
to be more instructive to the beginner in those little points which 
most professional men are likely to take for granted as being 
commonly known. We may premise here that the vines were 
planted out in the border in May, 1835; they were then one 
year old, in pots. In 1836 and 1837, they were headed down. 
