If the plants have done well they should be ready for such preparation in about eighteen months, more or less, according to the season. Formerly in this colony they were allowed to grow on until a spell of dry weather set in prior to the usual blossoming time. The growing ends were then cut off and all new shoots removed as they showed till flowers began to come or till the season for them was past. When the dry spell proved a long one, this seemed to answer pretty well; and, indeed, under these circumstances flowers would come in any case, whether growth was checked or not. But now it is more usual to stop the growing ends some nine or ten months, in the first instance, before flowering time. In the majority of cases the terminal bud will push, and this new shoot should also be removed when 5 or 6 inches long--not earlier, else the next to the last bud is apt to grow. After the second checking most vines will shoot far enough back to allow of the shoots being left. These grow on for the next year, and the stopped branches hang down with their lower ends a good foot or more from the ground, being generally from 4 to 6 feet in length, according to the heights of the forks through which they are hung and the positions of the new shoots, though these generally spring just before the last bends of the checked branches, which are to be the cropping parts. The new growths behind these are supposed to drain them of their sap, and thus conduce to flowering. However that may be, these checked hanging branches have certainly more tendency to flower than other parts of the vines. Flowers take some six weeks to develop from the moment they burst through the buds to their time of opening, but this period varies in length with the weather, continuous dryness retarding and moderate showers hastening their development when once started.