GREAT VINES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 121, 14 July 1911, Page 5

GREAT VINES.

The famous vino at Hampton Court is ottsn said to be tne largest m tne world, out according to a waiter in the “Technical Worm, ’' Unit ctisunctiou belongs to (Jaliiormt. In a secluded vuuey a few miles from Bantu Baroara, stands a vine that is nine feet seven mciies round the trunk. its braaicnts, '’some of übicli measure four feet m circumference, are trained over ,a heavy frame than covers an area of jp.UUO square feet, it is still in a healthy coie.i'.tion, and would grow much laiger were it not cut bacic every year. Some years ago a record was Kept of the weignt oi grapes yielded for sale by tins one vine; the total was ten tens, and it was estimated that another two tons had been given to neighbours and sightseers. i lie vine was planted—a little cutting—in 1842. in tiio palio of an adebe hotel in California is another remarkable vine. its trunk is nearly live feet in circumference, its branches cover nearly live thousand square feet, and its roots extend more than 200 feet in every direction. This vine was planted in the year 1300. The writer says it is difficult to estimate accurately the ago of votes. Some authorities say tne vino equals, and even surpasses, the oak in point of ago. Pliny mentions a vine reputed to be six hundred years (Id, and another writer mentions vineyards in Italy in which the same vines lore for three hundred years, century-old vines being regarded as young. Seme of the vines of Burgundy .are said to be four hundred years old and more. Compared with those the Hamilton Court vine is young, though it is nearing the century and a-ha!f mark. The fact that American history is comparatively short makes it impossible to obtain satisfactory dates on the subject in that country. Them is a wild vine on the Alabama coast that in ISIS was huge ono ugh f>r General Jackson to pitch Ids tent under it. In 1897 its 'drcumteronce was more than six feet, aril it v,as estimated to be over a mutiny md. The age of vines is one of the many interesting questions that we. must leave to a future generation to ,-ettlo.