CULTURE OF THE GRAPE VINE. 
247 
perpetual stoppings and primings which have so severely tried the 
patience of the gardener. In the cutting, the effects produced are 
immediate and striking; the shoots are found to he shorter, the joints 
closer and more compact, the leaves smaller, and the fruit much 
more numerous; but the duration of such secondary plants is short, 
nor can it, as far as my experience points out, be perpetuated by 
cuttings : of this, I mean to adduce proofs in my paper upon the 
cultivation of the cucumber. 
The conclusion I draw from all that has been advanced, is the fol¬ 
lowing. Cuttings and primings promote fertility, but not the dura¬ 
tion or strength of a plant; the principle of growth being paralysed, 
other and new parts are called into action, and thus precocious ma¬ 
turity is produced, which must be, and is followed by early debility 
and death. But this is of little or no consequence, where the plant 
is but of annual duration, and the direct object of the cultivator is, 
to obtain the greatest produce of fruit within the shortest period of 
time. 
G. I. T. 
April 8th. 1833. 
ARTICLE II. 
THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE VINE, 
AND THE EARLIEST PERIOD IT CAN BE BROUGHT TO PERFECTION. 
BY MR. WM. MATTHEWS. 
Gardener to Lady Palmer, Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire. 
At the time for pruning the vine, which is generally in the month 
of December or January, I take the cuttings of the strong wood, and 
separate the buds or eyes from them, which having done, I plant 
them singly in pots of size No. 1, and plunge them into a hotbed of 
tan or dung, in which situation I keep them, and encourage their 
growth as much as possible until the middle of May, repotting them 
as occasion may require. The forwardest of the plants will at this 
time want the assistance of a small stick, to which they must be 
loosely tied with a piece of bass matting, which has been previously 
soaked in water. This being done, I turn them out of the pots into 
the border in front of the house, taking care to keep the balls of 
earth entire about their roots. The advantage derived by this 
method, of planting them singly in small pots, must be obvious to 
