152 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 
slioots: by these means the wall or trellis will be 
much sooner covered than it would have been. 
Such pinching should be performed as early in June 
as possible, in order to give time for the young spray 
to become ripened. 
Hedges. —We would here direct the attention of 
the cottager to his hedges, to which he cannot pay 
too earnest attention, for what is a cottage or allot¬ 
ment garden without a good fence ? The first thing 
necessary in establishing a good hedge is to keep it 
free from weeds. Some people seem to think that it 
does not matter about a hedge being a little foul— 
they are much mistaken : one half of our hedges are 
spoiled during their earlier stages by weeds alone. 
If the quick takes the mildew early, we find it the 
best plan to dub or clip it immediately. The next 
set of shoots will very probably prove free from this 
pest. 
The Vine In-doors. —It is now high time to re¬ 
deem our promise of assisting gardeners who possess 
a small greenhouse in which they attempt to carry 
out grape culture, as well as that of plants in general. 
Most of the plants which were inmates of that green¬ 
house through the winter are now placed out of doors 
in some sheltered situation, and their place supplied 
by the annual tribes, lialf-bardy gay flowers, Achi- 
menes, Gloxinias, Sinningias, Thunbergias, Torenias, 
&c. &c. Now most of these things will not only bear 
but enjoy more heat than the liard-wooded tribes in 
general, and, so far, things will better agree. 
We must here stay to deprecate the wrath of our 
worthy coadjutor, Mr. Beaton, on whose manor we 
have been poaching for a moment; and, having the 
fear of his syringe before our eyes, we will get us 
away to our vines speedily, hoping that he will throw i 
light on his subjects beneath the viires, for we fear 
the vine laterals will much shade them. Indeed, 
this is one of the leading points in in-door vine cul¬ 
ture, where plants must bo retained beneath the 
vines; a leading point, we say, to know at all times 
how much of the lateral growths may be displaced 
or held in check, for the sake of the plants, without 
injuring the permanency of the vine. We think, 
therefore, that it will be well to talk this part of the 
subject over before proceeding further. We are 
particularly anxious that our readers, especially the 
amateurs, who in the main are a shrewd and reason¬ 
ing class, and delight in reasons more than mere dry 
rules, should be thoroughly grounded in the very 
first principles which lie at the bottom of all impor¬ 
tant horticultural processes; we shall, therefore, at 
all times, make it our duty to give the rationale of 
all matters which we deem of first-rate import. 
Vine Stopping is one of these matters of import¬ 
ance. It will be obvious to every one that, unless 
some process of this kind is resorted to, the shoots 
of the vine in-doors would speedily become confused, 
and that most of the larger leaves would be shaded 
by spray of inferior growth. Such, beneath the 
murky skies of Britain, would not answer; beneath 
the glowing and, I may add, at times, burning at¬ 
mosphere of the East, and beneath such a vast 
increase of atmospheric heat, there is little doubt 
that a slight screen of laterals thrown over the 
larger leaves is, at times, exceedingly beneficial, and 
intended specially by nature for that very purpose. 
The bountiful hand of God is manifest in this very 
matter, for this plant of all ages and many climes 
is so constituted that, pruned or unpruned' it may I 
become subservient to the wants of man under the j 
varying conditions to which it may be subjected. 
The principal leaves, in our dull clime, require the 
full action of sun-light, hi order to elaborate com¬ 
pletely those juices on which the flavour and size of 
the fruit, as well as vigorous constitution of the tree, 
depend. To throw some light on this portion of the 
subject, and by way of illustration, we may here 
direct attention to the fact that a course of vert/ close 
stopping, persisted in from the first, with young- 
vines, would for years prevent their attaining that 
bulk of stem which is necessary in order to carry full 
crops every year for many years in succession. In¬ 
deed, by carrying it to a great extreme the vital 
powers of the vine -would, doubtless, be seriously 
injured. 
We have observed thus far in order to shew that a 
medium must be observed in stopping processes; 
and we proceed now to shew that the vine, like most 
other trees, moves by periodical fits—if I may be 
allowed the term—even in its annual course, and 
that the stopping must be made to bear a direct 
relation to such habits. These peculiar periods on 
which, as we have before observed, the amount as 
well as the stopping necessary must be brought to 
bear, are— 
1st. The development of the bunch. 
2nd. The first swelling of the berry. 
3rd. The last swelling of the berry. 
We will now briefly explain each of them; it will 
be matter for future Cottage Gardeners, as springs 
return, to enter still further into this interesting 
subject, which is not to be entirely settled in a page 
or two. 
1st Period: Development of the Bunch.— In 
order to concentrate as much as may be the energies 
of the vine in the neighbourhood of the tiny yoruig 
bunch, and to give the latter those broad shoulders 
and other appurtenances deemed so necessary, stop¬ 
ping is had recourse to ; not the same in character, 
however, as the subsequent ones; this is a stopping 
of the very first efforts of the vine to fulfil the desti¬ 
nies assigned to it, but which man thus modifies to 
his own peculiar aims, a modification of which it 
was made susceptible from the beginning. This 
consists in merely pinching off the point of the 
growing shoot one joint above the “show;” which 
“ show,” in other words, is the joint from which the 
fruit proceeds. The reason why one joint is selected 
is this:—it is found by experience that, in a roof 
covered with vines in Britain, every allowable means 
must be taken at all times to check the tendency of 
one shoot to overlap another. Light is the prime 
object after all; and it must be borne in mind by 
our young and rising horticulturists, that if the 
stopping took place two or three joints beyond the 
“ show” there would be no harm, but probably good, 
all other circumstances bearing a just relation to the 
proceeding. 
2nd Period : the First Swelling of the Bbrry. 
—After the young points have been pinched, or, in 
gardening language, “ stopped,” in a very few days 
each joint below the stopping will put forth a side 
shoot, these are termed “ lateral ” or “ axillary ” 
shoots. We here stay to request our readers, once 
for all, in the most emphatic way, to reconcile them¬ 
selves to the technical terms existing amongst gar¬ 
deners, and to endeavour henceforth to charge their 
memory with them. This will save the writers of 
The Cottage Gardener —not endless trouble, for 
being exceedingly busy is nothing new to them—but 
it will save the readers a host o i repetitions, the place 
of which may easily be supplied with sound infor¬ 
mation. This digression has been forced upon us 
