368 
ON GROWING FRUIT-TRESS IN POTS. 
which, from encroaching on each other, had become barren and un¬ 
sightly, were cut back and regraftcd,; and naked branches of otherwise 
thriving trees, were replenished with new and active shoots, which, in 
the second or third year, were studded with flower-buds, and this either 
by budding in summer, or grafting in spring. Naked blanks in peach, 
nectarine, and plum trees, are often effectually filled up by the inser¬ 
tion of a bud, provided it be not too near the root, where the bark is too 
much indurated to permit the operation. It is scarcely necessary to 
allude to the manner of renovating old trees in the cider and perry 
counties, by regrafting the largest branches—an operation usually per¬ 
formed by the common carpenter, with his saw and a small knife. We 
give these instances to show, not only the practicability of double 
working, but of its great utility in checking luxuriance, and promoting 
fruitfulness. 
Vines, figs, cherries, peaches, and nectarines, are the kinds usually 
considered worth the trouble and expense of potting for forcing. Of 
these in their order. 
The vine, whether propagated from an eye, a cutting, a layer, or a 
coil, should be established in its pot twelve months, at least, before it 
is forced. The pot should be well drained by laying pieces of broken 
crockery over the hole or holes in the bottom, and these enlarged, if 
thought necessary. The size of the pot should be in proportion to that 
of the root it is to contain ; and it is better that it should be necessary 
to shift the plant into a larger, in a year or two, than place it in too 
large a one at first. 
The best compost with which to pot vines, as, indeed, all other fruit- 
trees in pots, is a mixture of fresh, mellow loam, and well-decomposed 
stable-dung—two-thirds of the former to one-third of the latter, and 
prepared a month or two before it is wanted. 
A potted vine generally requires a stake ; and the manner of pruning 
at the time of potting (which should be early in the autumn) depends 
on the station they are intended to occupy when put into heat. If 
intended to be forced in a hotbed frame, a low pit, or on the front 
flue or platform of any hothouse, then the vines should be cut down, 
and trained like low bushes. But if intended to stand on the back 
flue or shelf, or on the front or back curb of a pine-stove, with the bear¬ 
ing-wood trained to a trellis under the roof, then, in that case, the 
principal stem should be cut longer or shorter accordingly. We have 
many times seen abundant crops of fine grapes on potted vines treated 
in this way; that is, the pots placed on the curbs, or other supports, 
and the fruit-bearing wood tied to the wire or wood trellis of the roof; 
or if it happens that a potted vine has, either by accident or design, a 
