160 Transactions of the 



naturally be in a, state of torpidity. It is well known that 

 this desirable purpose is attained In great perfection in the 

 garden of the Earl of Surrey, at Worksop Manor ; and the 

 management there practised is the subject of this paper. 



The common methods of forcing early grapes are to train 

 the vines under the roof near the glass, or on small frames 

 against jQued walls; but to both these practices Mr. Aeon 

 finds great objections : to the former because it renders the 

 house too dark, and exposes the young and tender branches 

 to the pernicious effect of blasts of cold air rushing through 

 the interstices of the panes ; and to the latter, because the 

 heat of the flues is apt to scorch the branches, and in conse- 

 quence to destroy the crop, — excessive heat in the one case 

 producing the same injurious effects as excessive cold in the 

 other. The following are the two modes by which Mr. Aeon 

 obtains his iwri/ early and his veri/ late grapes. For the early 

 crops a house is used, of which the back wall is 9.6 feet In 

 height, and the front wall 3 feet, the roof forming an angle 

 of about 30 degrees. It is heated, from the absolute neces- 

 sity of employing an atmosphere of unusually high tem- 

 perature, with two flues that pass along the middle of the 

 house, and return in the back wall ; a flre-place being 

 built at each end of the house. Forcing begins on the first 

 of September, and the fruit begins to ripen the first week 

 in March. The vines are trained upon a trellis, fixed over 

 the flues, in the centre of the house, and also upon the back 

 wall ; but none are allowed to obstruct the light by occu- 

 pying the roof, until about six weeks after the forcing has 

 commenced, when some new shoots are introduced and 

 trained to the rafters. The form of this house gives it a 

 peculiar advantage, in presenting a greater surface for the 

 growth of vines than can be derived from any other plan ; 

 the trellis which is placed over the flues is nearly equal to 

 the whole roof, without being in any degree injurious to the 

 plants trained upon the back wall. The vines are planted 

 in the inside of the house, but in such a manner that the 

 mould in which they grow is not heated by the fire-places of 

 either flue. The usual mode of exposing the main stem of, 

 a forced vine to an extremely low temperature in the exter- 

 nal air, while the branches are stimulated by a very high 

 temperature in an entirely different atmosphere, is very pro- 

 perly objected to. Nothing, In fact, can be more injudicious 

 than such a practice, in cases where very early forcing Is 

 required ; for it should be borne in mind, that although the 

 absorption of the elements by which the proper juices of a 



