HORTICULTURE. 



305 



glasses once a day, but keep them close for the first fortnight or three weeks ; afterwards 

 admit air by degrees, by placing a little wedge under the glasses. When the cuttings are 

 rooted, remove the latter altogether. Sprinkle occasionally with water from a fine-rosed 

 watering-pot. By attending to these minutiae, success will certainly be attained. A slight 

 hot-bed is the best place for cuttings. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



New Garden Pot. 



The following account of a new kind of garden 

 pot appears in the Revue Horticole: — An English 

 amateur, Mi - . Keir, residing in Paris, has con- 

 trived a method by which the branches of trees 

 can be more conveniently layered than heretofore. 

 Pots with a slit on one side have been long in use ; 

 but difficulty has been found in their use out of 

 doors, on account of the want of any good means 

 of securing them in a fixed position or at any 

 desired height. Mr. Keir proposes to make such 

 pots with a tubular projection on one side {a b) 

 through which a staff may pass, and, being driven 

 into the ground, hold the pot perfectly steady. 



The adjoining cut explains at a glance the 

 nature of the invention. In forming such a pot, 

 it is said that the potter must take care that the 

 slit c is so small as to just allow the branch d to 

 pass in, without leaving room for the earth to slip 

 out. But this precaution seems needless; for it 

 would be easy to prevent the earth slipping by 

 means of pebbles or crocks applied to the slit after 

 the branch is inserted, and as the pot is being 

 filled with earth. — Horticulturist. 



Improvement in the Frames of Grape-Vines. 



The annexed figures represent an improvement in the frame of grape-vines, recently in- 

 vented and patented by S. Oscar Cross, of Sandy Hill, Washington county, New York: — 



Fig. 1 is a perspective view, and fig. 2 is a vertical section, showing how the frame can be 

 bent down so as to expose the grapes in a horizontal position. The nature of the invention 

 consists in an adjustable elevating and depressing grape-frame for the better cultivation of 

 the grape. The grape-frame is constructed of wall-strips, two by four inches, cut to any 

 desirable length, say ten or twelve feet ; and slats or cross-pieces of about an inch in thick- 

 ness and three in width, and six or seven feet long, are fastened about two feet apart to one 

 edge of the wall-strips. The vine is now placed upon the frame and slats fastened to the 

 other side, thus securing the vine within the frame, as represented in figure 1, A. The 

 frame can be supported in any position by the legs attached to it, and can be fastened there 

 by driving pins or stakes through holes in the foot-pieces, or it can be fastened in various 

 ways ; the vine itself will secure the foot of the frame. The advantages of the invention are 

 stated to be as follows — viz. the fruit is more easily gathered, as it can be brought to a con- 

 venient altitude, and the vine conveniently lowered to the ground, when it can be covered with 

 straw or otherwise to protect it from winter-killing. The size of the fruit is increased by 

 allowing the frame to lie on or near the ground, which secures to the vine a greater amount 

 of heat, as it receives warmth from the earth as well as from the sun, and is not exposed to 

 cold winds as much as those on elevated frames ; the quantity is also increased, as it sets 

 abundantly and grows larger on or near the ground. The grape-beetles and insects are not 

 as destructive to buds and foliage on or near the ground as on elevated frames. Care should 

 be had not to expose the fruit to too much sun during the early stages of ripening, but the 



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