the surface of the wall. The method of pruning, also, being, in general, what is called the spur method, tends more than any other to the permanent retention of old wood. And thus, the vine commences its fruit-bearing life under the most adverse circumstances.

The same mode of culture being followed in yearly succession, the vine quickly spreads over its allotted space of walling, exceeding, perhaps, two hundred, or even three hundred superficial feet. It then contains a vast number of long and useless limbs, on which may be seen scores of excrescences, dignified with the name of spurs, producing in the growing season a superabundance of foliage, with but little fruit, and that of an inferior description, and requiring in its management a tenfold portion of time and trouble, beyond what would be necessary under a proper mode of culture.

To these characteristics of the usual method of managing a vine, may be added two others; namely, that of suffering the stem and principal branches to be covered with several years' accumulation of decayed layers of bark, and of continually digging the border in which the roots run, and cropping it with vegetables, even close up to the very stem.

This brief description of the method of cultivating vines on open walls, will apply, I believe, to ninety-nine out of every hundred throughout

the country. And it may be remarked of it, that during the very first year of the plant having been suffered prematurely to ripen fruit, and throughout every successive year afterwards, not a single point of culture has been practised, but what may be described as most erroneous. Every step taken, has been apparently for the purpose of rearing a superstructure of old barren wood, rather than the production of abundant crops of fine flavoured fruit.

Can it be matter of surprise, therefore, that under such a mode of culture, grapes grown on open walls, do not, in general, attain to a higher degree of perfection?

CHAPTER III.

ON THE CAPABILITY AND EXTENT OF THE FRUIT-
BEARING POWERS OF THE VINE.

THERE is not a single point of culture in the whole routine of the management of a vine, the knowledge of which is of so much importance, as that which enables the cultivator to ascertain with precision, the greatest quantity of fruit he can annually extract from it, without checking its growth, or injuring its vital powers. The operation of pruning, if it be not guided by this, is an operation performed perfectly at random, and every inch of bearing-wood either cut out, or retained under such circumstances, is done in utter ignorance of the consequences, whether they will ultimately prove injurious or beneficial to the health and fertility of the plant. And, yet, necessary as is this knowledge, and without the guidance of which, in pruning, neither good flavoured grapes, nor good crops, can with certainty be annually obtained, all the rules hitherto laid down for the pruning of vines, have been promulgated, unaccompanied with the slightest instruction to lead the pruner to a knowledge of this most valuable point of culture.

Such, however, is the importance of proportioning the quantity of fruit to be matured, to the capability of the plant, that in Miller's Gardener's Dictionary it is stated, in reference to the cultivation of the vine in foreign countries, "that when gentlemen abroad let out vineyards to vignerons, there is always a clause inserted in their leases, to direct how many shoots shall be left upon each vine, and the number of eyes to which the branches must be shortened; because, were not the vignerons thus tied down, they would overbear the vines, so that in a few years they would exhaust their roots, and render them so weak, as not to be recovered again in several years, and their wine would be so bad, as to bring a disreputation on the vineyard, to the great loss of the proprietor."

Here, then, is a distinct recognition of the fact, that the flavour of grapes, and the vital energies of vines, are materially affected by overcropping, and, that, to restrain the lessees of vineyards in foreign countries from practising so injurious a course of culture, the number of eyes to be left on each vine, is actually limited, and even made the subject of special contract. Now, if it be necessary to observe such a rule in countries that are congenial to the growth of the vine, and where, from its forming an important branch of rural economy, it may be reasonably presumed, that the true nature of the plant is well under

stood; how much more so must it be in the latitude of Great Britain, where, from the deficiency of solar heat, and the variableness of the climate, a much greater portion of the vital energy of the vine is put in requisition to ripen the fruit?

And, yet, who has ever seen in the English practice of pruning vines, any rule observed of the above-mentioned nature? In short, the common method of pruning vines on open walls, is the most random operation imaginable.

In very warm summers, the juices of a vine plant are more highly elaborated than usual, the sap being inspissated, or thickened in a greater degree by the increase of solar heat, in consequence of which, it is rendered more productive of fruit-buds than leaf-buds. Shoots that are considerably less in size than those which bear fruit in ordinary summers, will, after being ripened in such a summer, produce fine grapes in the following season; it is next to impossible, therefore, to prune a vine when all the shoots are thus well ripened, so as not to bear a good crop of fruit in the ensuing year. Indeed, a person blindfolded may then take a common sickle, and chop away at a vine right and left, and if he chance to leave any young wood at all remaining, that wood will produce fruit, because nearly every bud formed in such a summer becomes a fruit-bud. In the following year, almost every vine, however injudiciously managed, will be