December 1, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
499 
Your correspondent concludes my practice is to allow unlimited 
growth only at the top, or is not sufficiently acquainted with 
unrestriction after the first season's growth. Mr. Iggulden’s 
statement goes so far to prove that unlimited growth is of some 
advantage “ in case of defective root-action.” If restricted Vines 
are liable in any stage to show signs of exhaustion, and this 
resulting from a defective root-action, the soundness of an unre¬ 
stricted growth is evident. Moderate crops for a series of years 
on restricted Vines become in the end much too heavy, and 
exhaustion is the result. How are such Vines to be recruited ? 
Either the crop for a season must be sacrificed or restriction dis¬ 
continued. This being the case, advocates of restriction would 
have to follow the system they condemn to restore to the Vines 
their former vigour. Many able Grape-growers have found the 
advantage of giving Vines previously restricted greater freedom 
of leaf-growth after they have commenced to go back. I am 
convinced that unrestricted Vines not only continue longer to 
produce fine bunches and heavier crops, but their fruitfulness 
Fig. 80.— CvriUPEDIcii sriCERIAXUM (see page 500). 
is extended over an unlimited period of time without signs of 
exhaustion. 
All Vine borders in time become exhausted whether the Vines 
are restricted or not; but much can be done in supplying them 
with food from the top of the border, by which means they can 
be kept in good condition for a very long time. The lasting pro¬ 
perties of a Vine border materially depend upon the condition 
and nature of the material employed. If loam is of a retentive 
nature it lasts double the time of much lighter loam. 
If the system of unrestriction is so unsound in the early stages 
of a Vine’s growth as Mr. Iggulden appears to suppose, it is a 
wonder Mr. Wm. Thomson had never found it out, and who has 
attained greater success than he has done ? In the seventh edition 
of his book on the Vine, in describing the planting of some small 
Vines in 1864 (pages 32 and 33), “ which were no thicker when 
planted than a writing quill,” he says, “ The Vines were just 
bursting their buds when planted ; and instead of adopting the 
usual practice of stopping or rubbing off all the buds but one or 
two, I allowed all to grow and tied them carefully to the wires. 
By this means I had in some instances ten rods to one Vine, all 
of which during the season ran to the top of the house and paitly 
down the back wall, a distance of 30 feet, and many of these rods 
weie as stiong as ever I had previously seen a single rod from a 
Vine the first )car it was planted. In January, 1865, when they 
were cut down, the whole house was a perfect thicket of wood. 
