and immediately taking to the soil, the shoot extends in proportion to the sap supplied; and thus, proceeding unchecked, will, the first year after transplanting, often form a shoot strong enough to produce fruit the following year; whilst the strongest plant that may be raised from a layer or cutting, in the usual manner, and transplanted, will not produce a shoot of half the strength the first year, and are seldom in a state to produce fruit in a shorter time than three years.

The Vine is a creeping plant, and requires support to enable it to arrive at maturity in the production of its fruit, and differs materially in its habits or nature from all the other fruit trees; and unless this is duly considered, and perfectly understood, it will be impossible to train it to the utmost advantage. I shall therefore state, in four propositions, or theorems, what I consider to be the laws of Nature, as explanatory of the mode of training.

First. The Vine bears its fruit upon shoots of the same year, produced by branches of the preceding year.

Second. The strongest and best ripened branches produce the largest quantity and finest quality of fruit.

Third. In whatever position the branches of a vine are laid, whether horizontal, oblique, or perpendicular, the strongest branches are always produced at the extremity of a last year's branch, and the two extreme buds generally form shoots of equal strength.

Fourth. Those branches which are the farthest from the root ripen the best, and are the most prolific.

A method of training the vine, conformable to those principles, was in the year 1808 transmitted by me to Mr. Knight, who caused it to be published in the transactions of the London Horticultural Society, and there stated to be taken from Hitt; but, on comparison, I think this method will be found much more conformable to the principles I have explained, than that of either Hitt or Forsyth, and calculated not only to produce an equal quantity of fruit for the first few years, but to continue for any length of time to cover the same space of wall or frame with the same quantity of fruit annually, and, at the same time, to extend it to any distance required.

The figures in plate 4. were those given to show the method above alluded to, but which is more peculiarly calculated for a long and low or shallow wall or frame; and a very slight observation must convince any person that Hitt's plan and principles are wholly inadequate to the production of such an effect.

I have annexed sketches of another mode that is better adapted for a narrow and high space, see plate 6. and 5.; however, these are merely by way of elucidation; the principle admits of an infinite variety of forms.

It will be seen that by adhering to the principles I have explained, the whole of the sap supplied

by the roots, will be applied to the most profitable purpose, the strongest shoots will be formed on the ends of these shoots which were the strongest, and left to produce bearers the last year, and on the spurs left for the purpose; and as these will be the only wood branches on the root, the whole of the sap flowing to them will not only give them the must pass the fruit

utmost strength, but as it branches, the fruit will in consequence be well supplied and supported.

From the peculiar direction of those branches, the position is not only the most congenial for the bearers, which have ample space allowed to be trained up perpendicularly between the horizontals; but the strongest shoots will be produced in the exact situation to form bearers for the next year, to fill the same space with fruit, which was so occupied the last year, and to extend the tree.

Those strong shoots or leading branches marked in the summer figures a. a. a..a., must be carefully fixed as they grow during the summer, and by no means be shortened; for if they are shortened or stopped during the summer or spring, those buds which would otherwise form the branches to produce fruit the following year, will burst prematurely, and the fruit be lost; the collaterals which are thrown out must be taken off from time to time, as they appear, not close, but pinched or cut off a little above the first joint; this attended to, and the branches trained into the most convenient place to be exposed to the sun, they will become suffi

ciently hard and ripened, without removing any of the leaves which cover the fruit buds. And it may be necessary to observe, that the leaves must not be removed or taken off on any account; for those buds which have been deprived of their leaves, seldom produce fruit.

The bearers as marked c. c. c. in the figures, being trained up perpendicularly, must be shortened by pinching or cutting off their tops, about two or three joints above the fruit, and all barren branches must be taken away, close to the old wood.

To perform these operations, the vines should be overlooked every fortnight during the spring and

summer.

At the winter pruning, which I recommend to be performed as soon as the fruit is ripe and gathered, all the branches that bore the fruit must be cut off close to the old wood, and the strong wood branches or leaders, which have been fastened up and trained for the purpose, be brought down and fixed close upon the old branches, and shortened, so as exactly to fill the same space, with the bearers, the next year, which they did the former; see d. d. d.

On those principles, a tree being planted as A., and trained or fastened as 1 S. during summer, and as 1 W. at the winter pruning, will, the following year, be as represented by figure 2.; the short spurs marked f. f. f. are necessary to furnish two extreme buds to produce the two strong shoots, which will be wanted the next year; one to cover the old bearer, as marked d. in figure 2. and the

other to be shortened, to form extreme buds, as f. for the following year.

Pursuing this method, any space may be filled, and when it is so, by cutting off the oldest branch close to the root, as at g. figures 3. and 4. and removing it, the tree will be the same as it was the last year, with the waste of one horizontal and bearers only.

If any prefer the upright mode of training in forcing houses, a system full as regular as those I have described may be adopted, as represented by the figures 1. 2. 3. plate 5. and in this the principal object must be to keep two strong shoots growing from the bottom every summer; the one to be fastened up alongside the old wood, and the other to be cut off, to produce two for the same purpose the next year; pursuing the principles explained, it will readily occur that a vine may be trained in almost any shape the imagination can devise; and to obtain the advantages resulting from an extended surface of trunk, with the upright mode of training, the lower figures in plate 5. are well calculated.

.

In this manner a tree may be continued to fill the same space, to present the same extent of surface, (and barring accidents and unfavourable seasons,) to produce the same quantity of fruit annually, for any length of time; the only encroachments upon the original space will be by the old wood or branches, and as these must be laid close, one on the other, this will be but trifling.

Forsyth's remark, that "the vines were trained