nails to each post, and driving them to within half an inch of their heads, the first two and a half feet from the ground, a second midway between that and the top, and the third near the top, I attach No. 11 iron annealed wire firmly to one of the nails in the end post, pass on to the next, and stretching it straight and tight, give it one turn round a nail in the same line as the one to which it was first attached. Having in this manner extended it along the three courses, the whole length of the row, my trellis is formed. I have had a portion of my vineyard fitted up in this way for three years, and experience has confirmed the superior fitness of the plan. It is not its least recommendation, that it possesses in a degree the character of labor-saving machinery. A very important and extensive labor-making portion of the operations in the vineyard during the summer is the attention required by the growing shoots to keep them properly trained up. They grow and extend themselves so rapidly, that where the strips of the trellis are lath, or where poles are used to support vines, unless very closely watched, they fall down in every direction, in a very unsightly and injurious manner. Here the wire being small, the tendrils or claspers eagerly and firmly attach themselves to it, and thus work for themselves in probably two-thirds of the instances where the attention of the vigneron would otherwise be required. There is a free access afforded to the sun and air, and no hold for the wind to strain the frame. After the vines have attained a full capacity for production (say five years from the cutting), my view is to prepare them for bearing an average of fifty clusters to each, leaving several shoots of from three to five joints on a vine for this purpose. When fresh pruned, they will not be more than four feet high, at their greatest age."

The modes of training in vineyards and vineries are alike suited to the garden. Low training may be practised in borders or hedge rows in large gardens; and high training in sheltered situations, on high trellises or arbors. By proper management, the vine may be elevated to the middle story of

a house by a single stem, and afterwards trained to a great height according to the taste of the proprietor.

INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE.

Dr. R. T. Underhill, of New York, has a vineyard at Croton Point, near Sing Sing, where, after having sunk thousands of dollars in attempting to raise the most celebrated foreign varieties, he abandoned the project as visionary, and commenced planting the Isabella Grape in 1832, and the Catawba in 1835. Mr. Underhill has now upwards of twenty acres of these grapes, chiefly of the former, under the most successful cultivation. He says that the Isabella Grape ripens two or three weeks earlier than the Catawba, and that these two varieties are, in his estimation, the best adapted for general purposes; the former yielding with him a more valuable crop than any other with which he is acquainted. He says that the quality of this fruit has improved very much within a few years, the clusters and berries being much larger and sweeter; and that they are capable of still greater improvement by high cultivation.

"In this latitude (south of the highlands of the Hudson), I find that the Isabella Grape ripens quite as well when planted in a level field, protected from the north and west winds by woods or hedges, as on declivities. Several of my vineyards are thus located, and, as far as I can perceive, the fruit ripens at about the same time, and is of the same quality as those planted on steep side-hills. I think, however, that north of the highlands, side-hills would be preferable. To prepare the ground for a vineyard, the best way is to turn over the whole of the surface soil from fifteen to eighteen inches in depth, early in the spring, by ploughing twice in the same furrow. This will place the richest part of the soil in a position where it will give the greatest supply of nourishment to the vines. Few vineyards in this country have been prepared in this way. But the cost is so small and the advantages so great, that it

should be done wherever there are no rocks or large stones to prevent it."

HORIZONTAL TRAINING.

A vine may be trained horizontally under the coping of a close fence or wall, to a great distance, and the borders in an east, south-east, and southern aspect of large gardens may be furnished with a variety of sorts, which will ripen in great perfection, without encumbering the borders; or the plants may be trained low, like currant-bushes; in which case, three or

Training in the Form of a Tree.

more shoots, eighteen inches or two feet in length, may diverge from the stem near the ground, to supply young wood annually for bearing. The summer pruning consists in removing shoots which have no fruit, or are not required for the succeeding season; and in topping fruit-bearing shoots, and also those for succeeding years when inconveniently long and straggling. For as, by this mode, the shoots destined to bear are all cut into three or four eyes at the winter pruning, no inconvenience arises from their throwing out laterals near the extremities, which topping will generally cause them to do.

In training vines as standards, the single stem at the bottom is not allowed to exceed six or eight inches in height, and from this two or three shoots are trained or tied to a single stake of three or four feet in length. These shoots bear each two or three bunches, within a foot or eighteen inches of the ground; and they are annually succeeded by others which spring from their base, that is, from the crown or top of the dwarf main stem. This is the mode practised in the north of France and in Germany. In the south of France and Italy, the base or main stem is often higher, and furnished with side shoots, in order to afford a great supply of bearing-wood, which is tied to one or more poles of greater height. The summer pruning, in this case, is nearly the same as in the last. In the winter pruning, the wood that has borne is cut out, and the new wood shortened, in cold situations, to three or four eyes, and in warmer places to six or eight eyes.

PINCHING AND RUBBING OFF BUDS.

Nicoll observes that "most of the summer pruning of vines may be performed with the fingers, without a knife, the shoots to be displaced being easily rubbed off, and those to be shortened, being little, are readily pinched asunder." After selecting the shoots to be trained for the production of a crop next season, and others necessary for filling the trellis from the bottom, which shoots should generally be laid in at the distance of a foot or fifteen inches from each other, rub off all the others that have no clusters, and shorten those that have, at one joint above the uppermost cluster. For this purpose, go over the plants every three or four days till all the shoots in fruit have shown their clusters, at the same time rubbing off any water-shoots that may rise from the wood.

Train in the shoots to be retained as they advance. If there be an under trellis, on which to train the summer shoots, they may, when six or eight feet in length, or when the Grapes are swelling, be let down to it, that the fruit may enjoy the full air