Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/157

 an acuter angle on the internal edge, and the outer edge touching the bark of the stock over as large a surface as possible. The first, or lowest eye, should coincide with the stock; the second, be at the surface of the soil, and the uppermost, altogether out of the soil. It should then be carefully bound, and covered with soil, to protect it from the sun's rays. Cloudy and moist weather is most favourable for the operation. Scorching suns, parching winds, and heavy rains are equally unfavourable. Grafting succeeds well on all soils, excepting in such as are very stoney and acid, or in such as have very little depth; in these, the sun generally scorches and withers the scion before it has taken.

The sap circulates so freely in the whole wood of the vine, that if the operation be performed with only ordinary care, it is sure to succeed, and, if it succeeds well, it will give strong shoots, and may be pruned to a considerable length the second year.

The common method of filling an empty space by a layer, is to choose, from the best of the neighbouring vines, a long shoot, and sink it to a sufficient depth, in a trench between its stock and where it is to grow. It is there fixed to a support, and pruned to two or three eyes. The depth to which it should be sunk, will vary according to the