82 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



at least, the ripening process commences, when the ground may be sup- 

 posed to be becoming exhausted of much of its moisture. Indeed, it 

 appears the Vine \vill stand just as much cold at the root as any 

 deciduous tree, and rain as well. Stagnant wet will injure it, just as 

 it will injure the roots of a Beech-tree ; the many aged Vines found 

 throughout the country prove this. The one great want seems to be 

 a higher and drier temperature in autumn to ripen the wood of the 

 Vine under culture in this country, but with a constant undiminished 

 supply of food at the root. Shallow dry borders are accompanied with 

 red-spider, or even a very porous light border on gravel, though it may 

 be deep ; and red-spider means poverty in the plant. But to turn 

 round and look at the subject through the medium of practice and its 

 suggestions, what has all this got to do with the forcing of Grapes'? it 

 may be asked. Well, it has got everything to do with it. And it 

 occurs to us, in the first instance, that it tends to show that the dry 

 heat from hot- water pipes below a Vine-border is not just a rational, 

 a natural, or necessary application. Looking at the Vine in its 

 natural state, the roots do not appear to be decoyed downwards by 

 earth-heat, but upwards by sun-heat to the surface, to be benefited by 

 nature's annual top-dressing of fallen leaves. 



We have forced the same vinery for eight years, and cut Grapes 

 annually in April, sometimes on the first day of the month. The 

 roots are, both out and inside, about equal, and no heat is applied, 

 except what the surface of the border inside absorbs from the atmos- 

 phere of the house, — if we except also that the pipes are close to 

 the surface of the border. Iso spade or fork has touched the borders 

 for years, but an annual top-dressing is given in the autumn before 

 forcing, the outside border simply covered with a foot of litter, and 

 wooden shutters over all ; and the results prove that no further under- 

 ground heating is necessary. The inside border is so full of roots that 

 it cannot be overdone with water when the Vines are full of foliage. 

 We must, however, plead guilty to another house with the border 

 entirely surrounded with pipes, though not underneath, and uncon- 

 fined except on one side — the heat reaching the border in a lateral 

 direction. We do not see much advantage from the arrangement, 

 but indeed a greater tax on our attention in the matter of watering. 

 From the facility with which the border can be dried in autumn, the 

 wood at pruning is harder than that of the other Vines, and a Bar- 

 barossa fruits as freely as the Hambros. 



It is difficult to understand on Avhat natural or physiological prin- 

 ciple the aeration of Vine-borders is either beneficial or necessary; we 

 suspect the whole thing is a misnomer, and that it is simply drainage. 

 We should like it explained on what principle a current of air filtering 



