the excess in the number of bunches of green fruit which require cutting off after the berries are set, in order to avoid overcropping the vines, and which sometimes amount to a great number; and also the berries that are cut out in the thinning of the bunches, the weight of which is always considerable; and these being added to the former, would, at the most moderate calculation, yield in the whole, thirty gallons of wine, thus produced from the superabundant foliage and green fruit of vines trained on the surface of a cottage! Bearing in mind therefore, these important facts which cannot be controverted, it will, I think, be readily acknowledged, that too great a degree of importance can scarcely be attached to the cultivation of the vine.

The management of this plant is in itself also, one of the most pleasing and most interesting branches of Horticultural practice. And, it may with truth be asserted, that of all the occupations that can be resorted to for the purposes of recreation, those connected with the garden are the most delightful. From these, indeed, spring many of the most elegant enjoyments of life, and the exercise of them is at once a source of health, of contentment, and of unalloyed and tranquillizing pleaSo congenial to our ideas of happiness, is the recreation afforded by a garden, that there is scarcely any one to whom the possession of it is not an object of strong desire.

sure.

Yet, to a very numerous class of persons, the inhabitants of towns, this source of enjoyment is in a great measure cut off.

The Vine, however, can be cultivated equally as well in a town as in the country, and in very many instances the means for that purpose are possessed in a much greater degree than in the country. The immense accumulation of buildings in towns, and their suburban districts, and also those of the metropolis itself, present an astonishing extent of surface of walling, well calculated to ripen the fruit of the vine. The only obstacle to the growth of that plant in towns, is the impurity of the atmosphere, but though this impediment is sufficiently formidable certainly, it exists only in the heart of London, and its dense and crowded districts, and in those of other large towns.

I am persuaded therefore, that, if the method of cultivating the vine on correct principles, and the certainty which under proper management, never fails to attend the production of its fruit, were more generally known, its propagation and culture would increase both in town and country to an extent that at present can scarcely be conceived.

It is for the purpose of diffusing a mode of cultivating this valuable plant, which is more definite and simple in its nature than any that has hitherto been promulgated, and by which the quantity of its fruit may be prodigiously increased, and the flavour greatly improved, that the following pages have been written. It is hoped that the whole management of the vine is therein made sufficiently clear, to enable every person who possesses facilities for the growing of grapes, to employ them in the most advantageous manner, in the production of this highly esteemed fruit.

CHAPTER II.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT METHOD OF CULTIVATING GRAPE VINES ON OPEN WALLS.

THERE is, I believe, no branch of practical horticulture, which the possessors of gardens are so deficient in the knowledge of, as in that which embraces the culture of the grape vine; and yet, singular as it may appear, there is no fruit-tree of any description that grows in this country, that can be depended upon with such certainty for a full crop, or that will yield so ample a return, as a vine judiciously cultivated on the open wall.

Let any person in the month of September, make a tour of inspection through the southern counties of England, in which nearly every cottage may be seen with a grape vine trained on its walls. Let him stop at intervals in his journey and select any number of vines for examination, and carefully estimate the weight of fruit growing on each, and the extent of walling occupied in producing that fruit, and having calculated the average weight

grown on every square foot of walling, let him then be told, which he may be with truth, that at least five times the quantity of grapes of superior flavour might be annually produced on the same extent of surface. Let him also select any given district, and estimate the number of superficial feet of walling, which the buildings in that district contain, and on which nothing whatever is grown, or at least nothing of any value, and which might at a trifling cost of time and trouble, be annually covered with fine crops of grapes, and he will find to his astonishment, that for every square foot on which vines are trained, there are at least twenty square feet that are either entirely vacant or occupied in a useless manner. If he then sum up his calculations, the result will shew, that, for every pound of grapes that is now grown, not less than a hundred pounds might be annually produced on the existing surface of walling, without the addition of a single square foot! Nor let it be supposed that this estimate is made hypothetically; on the contrary, it is the result of actual inspection and careful observation, and is considerably within the mark as to the quantity of grapes that might be annually grown. Every moderate-sized dwelling house having a garden and a little walling attached to it, may, with ease, be made to produce yearly, a quarter of a ton weight of grapes, leaving a sufficient portion of its surface for the production of other fruit.

It is difficult to account for the indifference which has hitherto been manifested towards the propagation of the vine, or to assign sufficient reasons

why a fruit so universally esteemed as the grape, should have remained stationary in respect to any improvement in its mode of culture.

I suspect, however, that the force of custom and example will be found amongst the chief operating causes. Scarcely any person when planting vines against his premises, ever thinks of setting apart for any one to be trained on, a less space of walling than a hundred and fifty, or two hundred square feet, seeing that the universal practice is to suffer a single vine to cover as quickly as possible, the entire surface of one side of a house or building, or a large portion of that of a garden wall. And this seems to be done under the idea, that the more wood there is in a vine, the more grapes it will produce, or that the one will be in proportion to the other. It happens, however, that the fact is precisely the reverse. If a vine be suffered to make a large quantity of wood, it will bear but little fruit; if it produce good crops of fruit, it will make but little wood; the one checks the other. To permit a vine therefore to make a great quantity of wood, under the idea of getting thereby a great quantity of grapes, is completely grasping at the substance, and catching the shadow.

Another reason why the method of cultivating the vine on open walls has remained stationary, may be found in the fact, that in the gardens of the rich, where professed gardeners are kept, grapes on vines of this description are but seldom grown to any extent, a sufficient quantity for the table being brought to perfection under glass. Hence, one of the principal sources from which im