Aspect

The object to be obtained is not only warmth, but shelter from the wind, which is injurious to the vine at all times of its growth. To secure this desideratum, the best aspect is S.E. Even E. by N. is a good aspect. Any westerly point or even due S., exposes the vine to the strong winds which prevail from the W. and S.W.

Soil

The best soil is a light, rich, sandy loam, eighteen inches deep, resting on a drainage of twelve inches of bricklayers' rubbish.

Manures

The richest manures, such as night-soil, blood, bone-dust, and butchers' offal, are most beneficial to vines, and should be added annually to the border in which they grow. During the time of their being in bloom, a slight trench in a circuit three feet from the stem should be opened, and the contents of the house slop pail, soapy water, and urine, be poured into it daily.

Walls, for the grape-vine, need never be higher than eight feet, and the more substantial the better, as they cool slowly in proportion to their thickness. They should be painted annually with a creamy mixture of one part lime and two parts soot, to fill up the nail holes, the harbours of insects, to destroy moss, and to increase the warmth of the wall. Although a dark-coloured body radiates heat, and consequently cools more quickly than a similar body of a light colour, yet this is prevented if a proper screen is placed before it. (See Shelters.) A coping should project from the top of the wall four inches wide, if this be four feet high, and an additional inch for every foot of height.

Pruning And Training

The vine bears on wood one year old only, and this knowledge must control these operations, for after a branch has borne it is of no further use; and in pruning, a chief object consequently, is to get rid of all the old wood that can be spared. As Mr. Clement Hoarse's practice is founded upon this, I adopt his rules without any modification. He obtains, he says: - "All the fruit of a vine from a few shoots trained at full length, instead of from a great number of spurs or short shoots. To provide these shoots the former bearers are cut down to very short spurs at the autumnal pruning, and at the same time a sufficient number of shoots are left at whole length to produce fruit in the following year; at the succeeding autumn these latter are cut down to very short spurs, and the long shoots that have pushed from the spurs are trained at whole length as before, and so on annually in alternate succession. This method recommends itself by its simplicity, by the old wood of the vine being annually got rid of, by the small number of wounds inflicted in the pruning, by the clean and handsome appearance of the vine, and by the great ease with which it is managed, in consequence of its occupying but a small portion of the wall.

"1st. In pruning, always cut upwards, and in a sloping direction.

"2d. Always leave an inch of blank wood beyond the terminal bud, and let the cut be on the opposite side of the bud.

"3d. Prune so as to leave as few wounds as possible, and let the surface of every cut be perfectly smooth.

"4th. In cutting out an old branch, prune it even with the parent limb, that the wound may quickly heal.

"5th. Prune so as to obtain the quantity of fruit desired on the smallest number of shoots possible.

"6th. Never prune in frosty weather, nor when a frost is expected.

"7th. Never prune in the months of March, April, or May. Pruning in either of these months causes bleeding, and occasions thereby a wasteful and an injurious expenditure of sap.

"8th. Let the general autumnal pruning take place as soon after the 1st of October as the gathering of the fruit will permit.

"Lastly, use a pruning-knife of the best description, and let it be, if possible, as sharp as a razor." - Hoare on the Vine.

In the spring next after the planting, two buds only having been left, remove the one which shoots the most weakly, and rub off all others but that one selected to remain as often as they appear. Nail the shoot to the wall as often as it extends six inches beyond the previous shred. In November cut the vine so as to leave only two buds. In the second spring manage as before, and in the November cut down to three buds; the vine will then appear thus: Fig. 72.

The third spring retain two shoots, treating as before. In September pinch off their tops, and in November prune them so as to retain some buds.

Fig. 72.

The fourth spring in February remove the 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 buds, bending the shoots down horizontally thus: and training the shoots from buds 3 and 7 as there represented. Prune and train as before directed during the summer, removing also superfluous shoots, and in November cut back a and c to about eight or twelve buds according to the strength of the vine; and b and d so as to leave only one bud on each. In the fifth spring train the shoots from these single buds in the same waving form as before.

Fig. 73.

"The vine," says Mr. Hoare, to whose valuable work I am indebted for most of the preceding directions, "has now assumed the form which it is permanently to retain, and the manner in which it is trained may be considered as the commencement of a system of alternately fruiting two shoots, and training two at full length for bearing wood in the following year; which method may be continued every year without any alteration until the capacity of the vine is equal to the maturation of more fruit than can possibly be borne by two single shoots, which, on an average, may be estimated at sixty pounds weight annually. Several years must elapse before this will be the case; but when it is, the arms may be easily lengthened by the training in of a shoot at their extremities, and managing it in the same manner as when the arms of the vine first formed. It is very advisable, however, that the vine should not be suffered to extend itself further on the wall, for in such case, the bearing shoots emitted from the centre are sure to decline in strength; whereas, by confining the dimensions of the vine to a single arm on each side of the stem, and each arm to the support and nourishment of two branches only, the very best description of bearing shoots will never fail to be generated close at home and these, as the vine advances in age, will become prolific almost beyond conception.

I have often ripened as many as seven full sized bunches of grapes on two shoots which have pushed from a single bud, on vines managed in this manner. Indeed, those who have been accustomed to permit their vines to cover a large space of walling, and to possess a great number of branches, can scarcely imagine how much easier a vine is managed, and with what certainty the fruit is increased in quantity, and improved in quality." - Hoare on the Vine.

Thinning

When the vine has become fruitful, in August, it must have the berries of each branch thinned until not more than half their original number remain. It is best done with a sharp-pointed pair of scissors, and care being taken to remove the smallest berries. This increases the weight and excellence of the bunches, for two berries will always outweigh four grown on the same branchlet of a bunch, besides being far handsomer, and having more juice as compared with husks. The average weight of the bunches on a vine may be taken, when ripe, at half a pound each, and with this data it is easy to carry into practice Mr. Clement Hoare's excellent rule for proportioning the crop to the size of the vine. If its stem, measured just above the ground, be three inches in circumference, it may bear 5 lbs. weight of grapes.

3 1/8 inches......10 lbs.

4 " ......15

4 1/2 " ......20

5 " ...... 25

And so five pounds additional for every half inch of increased circumference.