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The Country Gcntlanaiis Magazine 



ing and shutting being effected in a manner 

 which combines ease with expedition. The 

 pathways are formed of simple but substantial 

 cast-iron grating 2 feet in width ; and due 

 care has been taken for securing and apply- 

 ing sewerage and other liquid manure, as well 

 as clean water, when needed for the vines — a 

 capacious tank capable of holding about 3000 

 gallons being provided for the former. The 

 sloping nature of the ground allows of those 

 two vineries being terraced, or the one placed 

 at a considerable higher level than the other, 

 so that the back wall of the lower acts as a 

 retaining wall for the outside vine border of 

 the upper, and injury from the overshading 

 of the one by the other is consequently preven- 

 ted. The soil used for the inside as well as 

 outside vine borders was the turf from good 

 old pasture land, of medium texture, well 

 rotted or decomposed, and incorporated with 

 crushed bones, lime rubbish, and a little 

 superphosphate ; this, as well as the other de- 

 partments of the work having been done under 

 the direction of Mr Wm. Thomson, and much 

 after the manner recommended in his " Prac- 

 tical Treatise on the Grape Vine." The 

 kinds employed were chiefly the Black Ali- 

 cante and Lady Downes, planted at 6 feet 

 apart for permanent growth, with alternate 

 supplementary vines about 4 feetfurther inward 

 for being removed when the others fill their 

 allotted spaces. 



It was Mr Lindsay's intention to have 

 planted his vines early in the spring of 1866, 

 but like many others, when similarly circum- 

 stanced, he found himself unable to control 

 the doings of his tradesmen, and had to con- 

 tent himself with getting one house planted 

 in June and the other in July of that year ; 

 thus losing almost a season in the growth 

 of his vines, as a first selection of these made 

 in autumn and planted next winter, before 

 they had commenced to grow, would have 

 made almost as good plants in 1867. The 

 appearance of the vines is now, however, 

 everything that the most fastidious cultiva- 

 tors could desire, many of the rods having 

 reached to the top of the rafters, and these are 

 covered with most luxurant foliage, inter- 

 spersed on their lower parts with an abun- 



dance of unusually large well-formed clusters, 

 upon which the operation of thinning was 

 being performed at the time of our visit. In 

 the large house, which was the first planted, 

 the supplementary vines, which are chiefly 

 the Lady Downes variety, have from ten to 

 twenty bunches on each, while the permanent 

 Alicantes have on an average nearly half of 

 that number, the whole carrying fully 600 

 clusters, which may be expected to weigh, 

 when ripe, over half a ton. On entering, the 

 visitor is agreeably impressed with the 

 view of fruit and foliage hanging through- 

 out a length of 160 feet, and in another 

 couple of years, when these will cover 

 all the rafters over a base surface of 18 

 feet in width, the appearance will certainly 

 be grand in the extreme. That eminent 

 horticultural author, the late Dr Patrick Neill, 

 remarked in reference to the overcropping of 

 vines, that '' avarice not unfrequently cheats 

 itself in this matter; and it generally happens 

 in the vinery, as elsewhere, that not he who 

 desires most obtains most," and some while 

 admiring the splendid crops with which many 

 of the young vines at Dryden Bank are now 

 loaded, may feel inclined to suspect that their 

 owner has exposed himself to the Dr.'s im- 

 putation, by cropping too heavily, but Mr Lind- 

 say has such strong faith in the plant-feed- 

 ing properties of his well-prepared bor- 

 ders and liquid manure applications, that 

 he fears no bad results from taking a 

 first paying crop off at least his subsidiary 

 vines. The inside wall surfaces have all been 

 whitewa-shed with hot lime as a precaution 

 against insect lodgment, which imparts 

 throughout an appearance of cleanness. But, 

 in our opinion, the general effect would be 

 greatly enhanced, and an increased supply of 

 fruit obtained, were the presently bare back 

 walls thinly covered with trellis-trained vines. 

 The proper thinning of the grapes will, of 

 course, annually entail a considerable amount 

 of scissor labour in such an extensive vine- 

 yard as that at Dryden Bank will be. Mr 

 Lindsay contemplates employing girls to per- 

 form this all-important operation. And we 

 hope, for the sake of the girls, that he w^ll 

 use a portable outside awning to shade them 



