115 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AN1) COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 22, 1860. 
thinned out the buds on such a shoot before exposing it to heat ; 
and at other times have thinned them out alter the buds had 
broken and shown, so as to select shoots at regular distances, if 
I wished to establish that rod as tho basis for future spur- 
pruning ; or selecting the shoots with best bunches, if I merely 
wished to continue the fresh-rod system every year. In either 
case, A ines at all vigorous will make a fair shoot in one summer 
that will fruit well and regularly the next, the older stem being 
removed. If thero is a difference at all, theso young shoots will 
show the finest bunches ; but established old shoots, or rods with 
spurs, will generally swell off' the bunches best, though they do 
not look so well at first when the bunch show's. 
On the other hand, when Vines are extra luxuriant, producing 
large parasol-foliage, and some splendid bunches, but irregularly, 
and having many of the side-shoots barren. These are signs 
either that the w ood had been imperfectly ripened the previous 
year, or that the roots are so deep, and so far beyond atmo • 
spheric influence, that the Vines have a difficulty in secreting 
a sufficiency of matured organised material. In such a ease, tho 
common rule will hold true, that the extreme of luxuriance will 
be opposed to the extreme cf fertility. In the first case (want of 
ripening of wood), that may be amended by all tho sun possible 
in autumn, and a month’s firing in September and October; and 
if that is secured, you may please yourself as to modes of pruning 
and training. It extra luxuriance and want of fertility combined 
on the other hand, are the result of the roots being deep—say, 
two or three feet or more from the surface, then I should expect 
that a rigid adherence to spur-pruning would only aggravate the 
evil, unless great care were taken, not only to disbud from above 
downwards, so as to swell the buds at the base of the shoot, to 
which you mean to cut back ; and the border outside and the air 
inside were kept more than ordinarily dry and warm in autumn. 
AVlien managing such Vines, I have always found a modification 
ot the young rod-system the most certain for securing a crop. 
Eor instance : If the rafter were only from eight feet to twelve 
feet in length, then I would grow a fresh rod every season for ! 
that length, and cut out the old one when done fruiting. If the ! 
rafter were from twelve feet to twenty feet in length, I should 
have two rods, one from the middle to the top, and one from the 
base to the middle, which, together, would give bearing wood 
from top to bottom ; and, as in the former case, when fairly 
established, one old rod from top to bottom would be removed 
every year. When I became tired of this mode, and resolved to 
adopt the simpler plan of spur-pruning, then I would make up 
my mind to lift the roots and place them in well-drained fresh soil 
within nine inches of the surface. 
I wish I coidd make the reasons of this treatment obvious. In 
the case of Tines moderately healthy and luxuriant, the con¬ 
sequence of the roots being near the surface, the moisture ab¬ 
sorbed by these roots is so extra oxygenised, so to speak, that the 
foliage throws off the extra moisture by evaporation with ease, 
and, as already noted, the whole plant becomes a store-house of 
fertile organised material. In the case of Vines deeply planted, 
the large leaves have just a greater amount of duty to perform, in 
elaborating the much cruder sap raised from depths beyond the 
oxygenising influence of the atmosphere; and, therefore, the 
organised fertile material, instead of being so abundant as to be 
diffused over the whole plant, is chiefly concentrated in the well- 
rounded prominent buds at the base of the leaves on tho shoots 
of the current year’s growth. Let us take one step more in 
company, and I leave every one to form his own conclusions. 
Examine, by-and-by, the buds on your spurs of the current 
year’s wood—say from eighteen to twenty-four inches long, and 
you will find the most round and prominent ones near the end 
of the shoot, while those near the base to wdiich you intend cutting 
back in winter, are small, angular, and almost imperceptible. 
True, as has already been said, you may swell these by gradually 
disbudding downwards during summer; but even then your 
lower bud or buds will not have the plumpness and size of the 
upper ones. Now', the same will be seen on a nice young 
rod from eight to twelve feet in length, or more ; but then you 
do not need to depend upon three or so of the lowest buds to 
produce fruitful shoots, while all above may be well swelled and 
rounded. 
To accomplish this, farther attention must be paid, first, to the 
encouraging of laterals, and then removing them gradually, as 
was referred to in a late number The first is necessary to give ! 
strength to the young shoot and buds; the second to insure ! 
the maturation of that strength. When we tire of this plan, then j 
we must either entice the roots nearer the surface, or remove the I 
I surface stratum, or, best of all, raise the roots nearer to it. To 
me there seems no mystery in the matter. If I wanted a young 
Oak to become as quickly as possible a huge timber tree, I would 
j give it very deep rich soil, and let its roots go as deep as they 
could. Did I want it to produce acorns early and plentifully, I 
would treat it exactly the reverse. Did I grow Vines for timber, 
I should care little about the depth of their roots, if the wood 
were just matured enough to stand the frosts of winter. People 
used to talk of planting Pear trees for their grandchildren ; but 
now Messrs. Rivers, Lane, and others, show us we may eat Pears 
the first and second year after planting. Fertility is made the 
| main object, and strength w'hen necessary is given by rich surface 
I dressings, and not by depth of roots. 
j Now, 1 do not know the state of the roots of the Vines of “ A 
j Begixjjeb,” nor the length of the rafter of his house ; but I 
I should be almost inclined to come to the conclusion, that Vines 
■ that produced some twenty bunches a rafter could hardly be 
considered unfertile ; and if the leaves were not of great size, I 
should almost believe that the shanking and wiring of the 
bunches were as much the result of weakness and want of ripe¬ 
ness of the wood the previous season, and, perhaps, a little frost 
in autumn, as deep planting; but however this may be, as there 
! are two Vines to a rafter, so each of these Vines has a double 
stem, one supplied with long, old, unsightly spurs, nearly two 
feet long, and the other forming a younger shoot, I should cer¬ 
tainly advise giving during the present summer all the running, 
! as to growth, to the younger stem, so as to be able to remove 
entirely the older stem after the fruit was cut. For this purpose 
I should encourage the shoot from the end of the younger rod to 
go to the top of the house this autumn ; and if the lower part of 
that shoot were supplied with properly-placed healthy side-shoots, 
this main one at the end would be the chief young shoot to 
which our attention should be directed. If these spurs or sidc- 
slioots did not please me, then I should train another young shoot 
from the bottom, to rise to the height of eight feet, or as far as the 
new rod extended before the present season’s growth. By either 
of these modes the Vine would be renewed in vigour, and, most 
likely, in fertility. By the first mode laterals would be left at 
first at each joint of the young shoot, and a few would be left on 
the side-shoots, whether they bore fruit or not, removing them 
gradually in either case in autumn. By the latter mode, as soon 
as the young shoots were growing vigorously, and as on them I 
should depend entirely next year, I should gradually remove all 
side-shoots that did not show fruit, and allow very few laterals 
on those that had fruit, as the free-growing, unstopped young 
shoots would sufficiently keep up a vigorous root aetiou. One 
of these modes, according to circumstances, I should recommend 
in the present case, as the Vines will be so far renewed, and these 
old spurs and their old stem be wholly got rid of. Besides, two 
main shoots to a rafter are just one more than most people would 
have, and four I consider out of the question. 
2nd. Covering, Cropping, and Watering Vine-borders. — I 
agree very much, in the main, with wlmt has been said on the 
covering of borders by Messrs. Bailey and Erringtou. The dry 
materials, however, spoken of are not always easily obtainable; 
and when some eighteen or twenty-four inches of such material 
are used, the damps of winter and the returning warmths of 
spring, will cause them to ferment and produce almost as much 
heat as ever I obtained from fifteen inches of tree leaves, and, 
perhaps, a little litter. I thoroughly believe, however, that much 
danger is incurred from having, perhaps, a yard of hot-ferment¬ 
ing material over a border; not merely from the danger of 
hurting the roots, if they are near the surface, but also from the 
likelihood of injuring them by carelessly and at. once removing 
that covering. I allude to the matter here, for fully corroborat¬ 
ing the idea of my friend, Mr. Errington, or what, more properly 
speaking, would be expressing a satisfaction that my own con¬ 
clusions were confirmed by such an authority—viz., that many 
Grape failures this season are owing to the sharp, early frosts in 
October last year. I used to put a little litter on tho borders 
before that time ; but the fine weather previously put me off my 
guard. I find in consequence two or three Vines are consider¬ 
ably injured, and I think that all, except late houses, that were 
a little covered, suffered less or more. It is true that these Vines 
have long borne very heavy crops, and that in giving them some 
fresh compost this spring the roots were somewhat injured; but 
the two Vines that seemed to suffer most were not only exposed 
as to their borders, but tho holes by which they entered tho 
house had been left rather opeD, and, consequently, by not noticing 
it, the frost there seized directly on the stems. I also allow 
