GBA 
GBA 
six inches; it should then be fastened 
in its position with sticks if necessary, 
.and should be occasionally supplied with 
water till thoroughly established. This 
description of bed and mode of planting, 
is equally suited for either those to be 
grown against walls in the open air or 
such as may be intended for culture in 
houses; but circumstances may prevent 
their being raised to the height men¬ 
tioned, and in such cases the bed or 
border should be well drained, and kept 
as high as may be convenient, sloping 
the surface so as to throw off as much 
rain as may be possible, and every en¬ 
deavour should at all times be made to 
keep the roots close to the top. Though 
the vine is what may be correctly termed 
a gross feeder, it is a propensity rather 
to be checked than encouraged; and we 
would therefore advise some caution in 
the application of manure, eschewing all 
animal matters, such as blood, &c., as 
inducing in the plant only a rank exten¬ 
sion of its wood without a correspond¬ 
ing development of fruit. It is, of 
course, necessary to secure moderately 
strong wood ere we can expect fruit at all, 
but far more depends on properly ripen¬ 
ing that which is formed than on in¬ 
creasing either its length or substance. 
An annual dressing of six inches of rot¬ 
ten dung, carefully turned in with a 
fork about mid-winter or some time be¬ 
fore the plants begin to grow, is all that 
is required to maintain them in perfect 
vigour, and any extraneous application 
will be better avoided. Grapes are 
sometimes grown in pots for forcing, 
when, from the limited supply of earth, 
it may be necessary to give a propor¬ 
tionately greater assistance with manure, 
and then it should be applied in a liquid 
form, in very moderate strength and 
quantity at first, increasing gradually as 
the plant progresses, bearing always in 
mind, that it is not manure alone that 
can make a plant vigorous, but that it is 
merely a stimulant to the existing 
vigour. This is a point deserving par¬ 
ticular attention, for there is scarcely a 
more prevalent or mischievous error 
than to give unhealthy or weak plants 
strong food of the kind; they are unable 
to assimilate it, and if the treatment is 
continued must inevitably die. 
Pruning. Many and strenuous are 
the advocates of as many different sys¬ 
tems of pruning, all professing to be the 
best, and differing one from another only 
in a slight degree, the several methods 
resolving into but two that are com¬ 
pletely distinct; these are the “ spur” 
and “ long-rod” systems: by the first 
the fruit is produced from shortened 
branches proceeding from an old or 
principal branch, or from the main stem 
of the vine; by the other method, the 
wood or branches which bore fruit the 
preceding year is entirely cut away and 
young branches trained in its place for 
the production of berries in the current 
season. The first is most usually em¬ 
ployed, because the simplest, though 
each has its peculiar advantages. The 
main stem of a young plant, no matter 
what the future mode of training is to 
be, should be first carried in a perpendi¬ 
cular manner to the required height, and 
if it attains this at an early part of the 
season should then be bent downwards, 
in order to induce a branch from the 
curved part; or if it is near the end of 
the season, should be cut over at the 
part, the object in both cases being to 
gain two laterally spreading arms which 
shall extend from the principal stem hi 
the form of a T; from these two, other 
perpendicular branches, which are ulti¬ 
mately to form the fruit-bearing portion 
of the tree, are to proceed at intervals 
of not less than eighteen inches, and 
that the head may be regularly formed, 
particular attention must be given to 
the buds of the laterally extending 
branches at the time they are about to 
start, removing those which are badly 
placed, and bending the ends of these 
arms clown so that the shoots from near 
their bases may be formed first, for if 
allowed to grow at their own pleasure, 
it is most likely that the terminal buds 
will break first, and there will be subse¬ 
quently much trouble to get the middle 
of the head filled. 
Having obtained the required num¬ 
ber of rods from the horizontal branches 
at the proper distances, in the third, 
