Several others besides Mr Knight are now engaged in the raising of seedling vines ; and in all probability some excellent and hardy kinds will soon be produced ; so that another generation may once more sec vineyards common in this country. The raising of new vines is by no means a very tedious process. The fruit of the seedling may in general be tasted in the fourth year ; while a florist waits patiently for five or six years before his seedling tulips spew flower, and perhaps nurses his breeders as many years more before they break to his mind.
129. Vines are often propagated by layers, which, when rightly managed, form good enough plants. Strong healthy shoots from different sides of the stool are bent down, ge nerally in February, and gently twisted or notched : this twisted part is introduced into a flower-pot, filled with fresh mould, and which is sunk an inch or two beneath the surface. In the course of the summer, plenty of roots are sent out at the doubling, and in autumn the offset is sepa rated from the parent plant. In the nurseries near Lon don this mode is much practised ; and both parent plant and layers may often be seen bearing fruit, so that the kind can be positively ascertained. Abercrombie de scribes the mode of forming layers in the open ground ; but the advantage of having the plants in flower-pots is e ident, as a ball of earth can thus be preserved to the roots. Indeed, the roots of the vine are so liable to be in jured in transplanting, that flower-pots should always be em ploycd.
Vines are likewise extensively propagated by cuttings. These are taken off at the usual time of pruning in autumn or winter, and are kept till the following spring, merely by sinking them nearly to the top in dry earth. It was lOrmerly considered of great advantage to have an inch or two of old wood to each cutting ; the cutting was from a foot to fifteen inches long, and a single cutting only could in this way be made from a shoot. The Rev. Mr Michell, a philosophical as well as practical horticulturist, first in troduced the use of short cuttings, about three inches and a half long, and all consisting of the new wood, if properly ripened, and having only one bud or eye. Plants raised in this way he found to be furnished with more abundant roots, to come sooner into bearing, generally in the second year, and to prove more fruitful, than long cuttings, with several eyes, and a portion of the old wood attached. These cuttings are often planted in a nursery bed in the spring ; but they are much forwarded by placing them in pots, into the bark-bed of a stove. Mr. Michell usually planted his
cuttings in the naked bark, four or five inches asunder ; being short and throwing out tufty roots, they are easily potted when thought necessary. Shoots of strong growth, it may be remarked, are not good for cuttings, having too much pith. Many gardeners are of opinion, that plants thus procured from cuttings become better rooted, and grow more freely, than those from layers.
There is still another and a very speedy mode of pro pagating the vine, especially the more tender varieties, which will be described when we come to speak of the Vinery.
130. In forming a harder for vines, a matter of primary consideration is, that the roots shall not be able to pene trate to a wet subsoil: to guard against this., it is common to take out the earth, and lay lime rubbish, which is firmly beat down, in the bottom. Any fresh and light, but rich soil, to the depth of a foot and a half, or two feet at most, answers perfectly well.
In France and Italy the most experienced vignerons are very scrupulous about permitting any gross or strong manures, such as Bungs, to approach the roots of their fine vines, for fear of altering or deteriorating- the flavour of the grapes. Rotted turf or clippings of box trodden under foot in the highway, are the manures there pre ferred. They who apply dungs, are considered as more anxious about quantity than quality. In this country, how ever, we must partly compensate for the want of a bright sky and hot sun, by giving vigour to the plants by means of manures, even if we should make some sacrifice of flavour. Marshall repeatedly urges the necessity of this, and recommends the digging in of some sheep's drop pings, or the cleanings of a poultry-house, every year. Nicol too is a strenuous advocate for applying the essence of dungs, by watering vine-borders with dunghill drain ings, which he declares to be the " nectar of vegetable life." 13). In planting vines, it is customary to cut clean at the end the strong mot from which the fibres proceed. A hole or trench is then made in the border, corresponding to the length of the main root ; this trench is formed with a ridge in the middle ; and on this ridge the woody part of the root is laid, the fibres sloping down on each side. If the main root be three inches under the surface of the border, it is deep enough.