184. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, .Tune 23, 1857. 
' 
tlie principle that critics should ever he ready to he 
criticised. “ For if he did not judiciously stop the laterals 
[which he probably calls, though not correctly , the growing 
shoots ) what I should persist in calling* the fruit-buds of 
next year would inevitably start. This statement does 
appear somewhat notifying; for, though I can conceive 
of an injudicious stopping of laterals and the main 
shoots starting the buds intended for next year, I 
cannot conceive how any non-stopping could effect that 
result, though it might lead to one quite as prejudicial— 
the securing of mere bulk without maturation and con¬ 
centrated energy. 
It would simplify the whole matter to beginners were 
they once convinced that the luxuriant size of a Vine 
shoot, in itself an advantage, becomes an umnixed good 
only when that shoot is fully ripened and stored with 
highly elaborated matter from healthy foliage. Without 
that full maturation a medium-sized shoot is likely to 
be more fertile. Take this in connection with thephyto- 
logical fact that roots and top, stem and branches, act 
relatively to each other, and it will at once be seen that 
there are occasions when to promote growth laterals 
should be encouraged, and when to mature that growth 
they should be stopped and removed. I have just stated 
how this should be done in the case of spur pruning. 
As a matter of order we should have taken examples 
from the rod system first, as we must have a shoot 
before we can spur. One or two supposititious cases may 
help to remove the mystery. Some time ago I attempted 
to show what mode was the preferable one to follow 
according to the circumstances of the Vine. 
Here is a strong shoot coming from a Vine that it is 
desirable should grow to the top of the house during the 
season, and produce fruit during its whole length next 
season. As it grows every tendril, wiry substance from 
near its point should be removed, but the point should 
not be stopped or broken until it reaches nearly its 
allotted length. Almost as soon as you can see the buds 
in the axils of the young leaves you will notice a small 
secondary shoot coming between the bud and the leaf, 
and that shoot is called the lateral. If you wished to 
increase the size of your main shoot in girth you would 
let these laterals grow for two or three joints before 
stopping them by nipping out their points. As the 
shoot is strong and we wish it to lengthen freely, we 
stop these laterals in the usual way after they have made 
one joint, and when they push again we keep nipping 
them back, and as the main stem begins to change 
colour we remove them altogether, that more sun and 
air may play about the principal leaves, from the base 
of which these laterals came. 
But here is another case of a Vine shoot that, owing 
to the age of the Vine or other circumstances, it is not 
desirable should fruit for above half the length of the 
rafter next year, and, as it is coming not over strong, it 
is desirable that for that length the rod or cane should 
be as stout as possible, and have plump, well-swelled 
buds. Now here our practice would be different. Left 
pretty much to itself, the upper part, provided it did 
reach nearly the length of the rafter, would most likely j 
be the strongest—that part, indeed, destined to be re- I 
moved in the winter pruning. To increase the strength 
of the lower part intended for fruiting the following year 
I would nip out the point of the shoot when it had grown 
as far as I wished to leave it at the winter pruning. This j 
stopping would very likely cause two or three buds to 
start, and of these or a strong lateral I would select one 
for a leader, very likely to be stopped in its turn as it 
neared the top of the house. This first stopping would | 
also give an impetus to all the laterals downwards, and I 
these I would encourage to grow from one to three or more ; 
joints, just according as there was room. More quickly j 
than Toy any phytological reasoning a beginner may see 
the purport of this if he contrasts the slim stem of an Oak | 
drawn up in a thick plantation, with a broom-head of 
branches, with the sturdy stem of one of the same 
height that stands exposed in a park, with branches 
extending ever so far all round. He will perceive that he 
may feed the main stem by the lateral branches, as these, 
again, give an impetus to root action. If of a reflective 
turn lie may notice that, beautiful as is the outline of the 
park Oak, its trunk would have been more valuable as 
timber if, by a system of early stopping and pinching, 
the wood now contained in huge, uncouth boughs, little 
serviceable as to utility, had been concentrated more in 
the main trunk of the tree. Even on the forming of the 
timber material, then, of the Vine stem he would see the 
futility of too greatly increasing the length or the size 
of the lateral shoots, though undoubtedly at first they 
give an impetus to the growing powers of the Vine. The 
Vine, however, though rejoicing in luxuriance, is cul¬ 
tivated not for timber but for fruit, and its fruitfulness 
depends on the maturation of the wood, and, in the case 
and system under consideration, on the plumpness and 
roundness of the buds, which I would look after as care¬ 
fully as our correspondent advises. To gain this plump¬ 
ness of buds and hardness of wood he must prevent the 
laterals continuing too long, and thus maintaining a 
languid system of growth, or he may have mere girth 
of stem at the expense of maturation, and small 
angular buds instead of round and plump ones. Even 
these laterals, therefore, must be gradually shortened, 
and then removed ; while, as our correspondent advises, 
the main leaf from which the laterals came should be 
carefully preserved so long as it has a tinge of green. 
For want of this attention to securing maturation we 
have seen strong shoots—that strength increased by a 
mass of laterals—that never produced a bunch. 
When a fruitful rod produced this season throws out 
from its buds fruitful shoots next year, then, according 
to circumstances or choice, you may adopt the spur or 
the rod system. If the spur, treat the laterals as first 
spoken of under that head. If the rod system, which 
our correspondent seems chiefly to have in view, suc¬ 
cession rods must be grown each year, and the fruiting 
spurs cut away as soon as done with. In that case the 
fruiting shoots should be stopped above the fruit, the 
same as in the spur system ; but fewer laterals will be 
wanted on these shoots after the grapes are swelling, as 
the young rods for the following year, and the laterals on 
them to be treated as last mentioned, will keep up root 
action. In such a case, as the fruiting side-shoots will 
be removed in winter, there can be no harm, where there 
is time, in removing the buds from tbe axils of the leaves, 
as in the spur system. We think the buds on the rods 
will be finer in consequence. 
Whatever the mode of culture, provided the roots are 
right, the foliage regular, healthy, and fully exposed to 
light, and the wood well ripened, the whole plant is so 
stored with organised elaborated matter that there will 
be fruit, pinch and stop as you may. In the rod system, 
however, secure plump buds, and in all systems be care 
ful of the main foliage. R. Fish. 
THE CRUCIFERS, OR CROSS FLOWERS. 
From Hogg's Natural History of the Vegetable Kingdom. 
( Continued from page 176.) 
“ ALYSSIDiE.—Unless it be for their botanical or floral in¬ 
terest, there are none of the plants of this tribe which com¬ 
mand much attention; and those only which possess any 
properties recommending them for economical purposes are 
Cochlearia armoracea, the Horse-radish , and C. officinalis, the 
Common Scurvy Grass. The former, being so well known, 
requires little or no description. It is highly stimulant, ex¬ 
citing the stomach when eaten, and promoting the secretions, 
