22 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



in excess of the proportions given. This compost should never be 

 touched except when dry, and specially it should not be wheeled in 

 to form the border, unless in dry, and, if possible, frosty weather. 



We have come to the conclusion that it would be well if all Vine- 

 borders could be formed above the surface-level of the surrounding 

 ground. If this could be done, we should hear less of sour soil, 

 rotten roots, and shanked Grapes. As we are treating specially, at 

 this time, of early forcing, we must come to the vexed question of 

 bottom-heat or no bottom-heat ; and we throw in our lot with those 

 who are the advocates of bottom-heat for Vine-roots when forced early, 

 who certainly have common sense on their side ; and we advise its 

 apiDlication from beneath the border, and not from the surface, as 

 some are doing at the present day, believing, as we do, that its applica- 

 tion to the surface of the border will prove of little or no practical value. 

 Recent writers have given dismal pictures of the roasting of the 

 roots of the Vine over or in hot chambers heated to some imaginary 

 temperature ; and no doubt it would be possible to injure the roots 

 of Vines by such appliances as hot-water pipes in chambers under 

 them. This is one thing ; the necessity for doing so is quite another. 

 We started an early vinery on the first of last month. An under- 

 ground thermometer showed the temperature of the border to be 42° 

 at a depth of 18 inches; we applied a very slow fire to the boiler, 

 that heats four rows of 4-inch pipe, buried under a stratum of 

 brickbats and drain-tiles of various sizes, and radiating in all directions 

 from the hot pipes. In six days the temperature rose to 60° when 

 the surface of the border was covered with dry leaves ; on the outside 

 border these leaves were thatched with straw to throw off the rain, 

 and they will keep the heat from radiating from the surface of the 

 border. The water was then shut off from the bottom pipes — nor will 

 it be applied again above once for the same period till the Grapes are 

 ripe ; yet by this gentle and short application of it, which cannot 

 possibly injure the roots of the Vine, the temperature of the soil is 

 raised to something like the temperature of the earth at the season 

 when the Vine would, in its native country, be in a state of active 

 growth. If applied in the way and to the extent here described, 

 whether under rubble, as we have it here, or under stone pavement, as 

 shown in the woodcut, nothing but benefit to the Vine can be the 

 result. If the constant firing of the bottom-heat pipes be persisted in 

 during the greater part of the forcing season, that evil consequences 

 wiU be the result is every way probable ; but there is no necessity for 

 it, especially if the surface of the border be covered with leaves as 

 described, so as to prevent radiation. W. Thomson. 



{To be continued.) 



