708 
cularly applicable to cases where vines are trained to walls and 
do not ripen their fruit nor bear well. The frame must be high 
enough on the sides to admit of the vines being trained horizon- 
tally on a trellis, to keep the pendant branches clear of the dung, 
and to give free room between the vine branches and the glass 
for the leaves. Inthe first or second week of April, just before 
the vines begin to move, you make up a common dung hotbed 
at a convenient distance from the wall, or from the place where 
the shoots of the vines are, the branches must then be introduced 
into the frame, the back board of the frame being so constructed 
as to slide off; these you train along the trellis already mentioned, 
with their points directed downwards towards the front of the 
frame. Vincs produce an abundant crop in this way, and it is 
found that the ripening of the fruit is accelerated by laying slates 
on the dung; the wall always yielding a supply of young 
shoots for next year’s crop. Various gardeners, as well foreign 
as British, construct temporary frames or glass-cases against 
vines on walls. Sometimes a temporary furnace and flue is built, 
and excellent crops are obtained. Small vine plants will produce 
fruit under a common hand-glass. 
Forcing vines in pots.—This method is occasionally attempted 
by gardeners, in pits and stoves, and several bunches are ob- 
tained from each plant. ‘The soil must be very rich and frequently 
supplied with water and liquid manure. Marsland (Hort. trans. 
3. p. 353.) had a succession of grapes during eleven months in the 
year by forcing in pots. The pots were placed on stages, and 
as the fruit is cut they are replaced by others; at the age of 
4 years they bear abundantly and produce large bunches. In 
a temporary vinery or glass-case, placed against a wall on which 
grapes were trained, T. Thorborn has ripened a late crop, and 
kept the fruit on the trees in a state fit for use till February. 
Mr. Ninian Niven (Loud. gard. mag. 3. p. 311.) forces grapes in 
pots in flued pits, and trains the shoots along the trellis under the 
glass. The pots are plunged in leaves or tan. After the vines 
have fruited 2 or 3 times they may be thrown away and their 
place supplied by others: by this means large fruit will always 
be produced. 
Discases and insects.—Nicol considers the red spider the 
grand enemy of the vine. After every winter pruning he re- 
commends the branches, shoots, and trellis to be anointed with 
the following composition to destroy their larvee: soft soap 2 
pounds; flower of sulphur 2 pounds; nux vomica 4 ounces ; 
turpentine a gill, boiled in 8 gallons of soft water. The compo- 
sition to be laid on milk-warm with a hair brush, then with a 
sponge carefully anoint every part of the plant, walls, flues, | 
rafters, &c. Abercrombie recommends all the shoots to be 
washed with soap and water, and it may be mixed with sulphur, 
the stems being previously stripped of loose bark. For the de- 
struction of the turtle-bug, syringing the stems and shoots with a 
strong infusion of tobacco-stem-water. Watering is the best 
preventative of the red spider and green fly. To prevent birds, 
wasps, and flies, several gardeners direct them to be excluded by 
gauze frames, some recommend putting bags of gauze on each 
bunch, M‘Phail recommends nets with meshes an inch square. 
Gathering and keeping the fruit.—Grapes should be allowed 
to hang till fully matured and ripened, especially the thick- 
skinned and fleshy sorts. Even the thin-skinned and juicy 
kinds, which are cut usually before they are perfectly ripe, are 
much improved in flavour by being allowed to remain till they 
are ripe, particularly the White Frontignac, White Sweetnater, 
and White Muscadine. The vinery, when the fruit is ripe, 
ought to be kept dry and cool, in order to preserve the fruit as 
long as possible on the branches, and thus to prolong the grape 
season. ‘The leaves round the bunches are to be picked off, and 
a fire to be made in the day-time in gloomy weather. J. Thom- 
son (Hort. trans. 4. p. 132.) preserves grapes in the vinery till 
AMPELIDEÆ. IV. Vitis. 
February, by lighting fires in the day-time to dry the air and 
dispel damp, and at the same time giving plenty of air, and 
shutting the house close up at night. Fires at night, with the 
house close shut, occasions a vapour, and causes the fruit to 
become mouldy and to decay. Some kinds will keep on the trees 
along time by keeping the house dry and cool. Covering the floor 
of the vinery with dry coal-ashes, 3 inches thick, prevents damp. 
Forsyth (Treat. on fruit trees) preserves grapes by removal from 
the tree, cutting off the branch when there are 2 or 3 bunches on 
one, sealing both ends of the branch with common wax, then 
hanging them across a line in a dry room, cutting out with a pair 
of scissors any of the berries which begin to decay. He has 
kept grapes till February in this way. He says grapes may 
also be kept in packing jars, by wrapping every bunch in soft 
paper, with a layer of grapcs and one of bran alternately, till 
you have filled the jar, covering the top with a bladder closely. 
These jars may be kept in a room where you can have a fire in 
damp weather. 
Culture of the vine in the open air.—Vines require soil that 
has a dry bottom ; in such as are rich and deep it will grow luxu- 
riantly and produce abundance of large fruit; but on a dry, gra- 
velly, chalky, or schistous soil, it will produce less fruit, but of 
better flavour. The greater part of the French vineyards, Bosc 
observes, are on aargil-calcareous soil. Argillaceous gravel is 
frequent near Nismes and Montpelier, and is that which produces 
the vins des graves of Bordeaux. Both good and bad wines are 
produced from the debris of granites, such as the hermitage of 
the Rhone. The excellent wines of Anjou are made from vines 
growing among schistous rocks. Wines made from vines on 
chalky soils, are weak, colourless, and do not keep, as those of 
Champagne. Retentive clays are the worst soils for the vine; 
in such a soil the shoots do not ripen, and the flowers prove 
abortive. Switzer (Fr. gard. 149.) observes that the soil for 
the vine should be light, with a chalky or gravelly bottom, free 
from springs. Hitt (Treat. on fruit trees, 12.) advises a mixture 
of lime-rubbish, brick-bats, &c. for a foot deep in the bottom 
of wall borders destined for the vine. The soil and situation, 
Laurence observes, (Fruit gard.) can never be too dry for the vine. 
Manures.-—Dung, Speechly says, should never be allowed to 
approach the roots of vines till it is reduced to a kind of black 
earth, The dust and dirt of roads he esteems as a manure for 
vines. He says vines are greatly injured by the common prac- 
tice of laying lime-rubbish for the bottom floor in the prepar- 
ation of the ground. Cow-dung is generally preferred for the 
vine in France, but all kinds are used by vine growers; the 
more careful use composts of leaves, cleaning of ditches, ponds, 
&c. which they turn over a year before using. Vines are al- 
lowed by all gardeners to be rich feeders ; the fertility of both 
the Hampton Court and Valentines vines are attributed to their 
roots having found their way, the former into a large sewer, 
and the latter into a pond of stagnated water (Hort. trans. 3. 
p. 337.). The cause of the fertility of the vines in the hot- 
houses at Earl’s Court is attributed to the nature of the soil, 
which is composed of equal parts of garden earth and blood 
mixed together, and repeatedly turned over one year before 
using. Grapes are sometimes manured in Italy by digging in 
the pruned shoots. 
Vine walls.—A south wall is always preferred; low walls 
5-6 feet high, Speechly says, are best, as the plants grow 
stronger and afford larger grapes; at this height they enjoy both 
the reflected heat of the wall and the earth. English gardeners 
do not approve of flued walls for the vine. oo, 
Plantng.—Where a wall is to be entirely covered with vines, 
3 plants of a kind may be planted, weak growing kinds 3 feet 
distance, and the strong growing kinds 4 feet, the 2 outer plants 
of the 3 to be considered temporary, the middle one permanent, 
