APRIL. 



117 



The foregoing description, with the aid of the accompanying sketch, 

 will, I think, make the construction and fixing of the frames perfectly 

 intelligible. They are fastened at the distance of two feet from the 

 groand, to be out of the reach of damp. 



My Vines are planted twelve feet apart. A space of wall five feet 

 wide, on the left side of each Vine, is occupied by three branches, 

 which are annually spurred in, and are not intended to produce fruit, 

 but only wood and leaves ; to organise sap, strengthen the Vine, and 

 enable it to bring to maturity a heavy crop of Grapes within the cases. 

 These branches are nailed at two feet distance from each other, the 

 lowest of them being six inches distant from the ground. 



Another space of seven feet on the right side of each stem is appro- 

 priated to the Vine cases and to the accommodation of an annual cane, 

 which requires about a foot in width for its development, and this is 

 trained between the coping of the wall and the top of the glazed frames, 

 to a length of nine or ten feet. 



These canes or young shoots having been nailed on the wall in the 

 autumn, so as to be about three inches above the bottom of the frames 

 (after these have been taken down and housed), the frames are again 

 placed upon the wall each spring on the 1st of April, which forwards 

 the breaking of the buds and protects the young shoots from spring 

 frosts. 



The irregularities of the stone wall, though partly smoothed off with 

 a chisel, prevent the edges of the frames from fitting close to it, and 

 there are always therefore chinks left open, which answer the purpose 

 of ventilation ; so that there is no occasion to open the ventilating 

 panes except on those bright sunny days when the sky is free from 

 clouds, and there is no screen to soften the scorching ardency of the 

 sun's rays ; this weather in our climate rarely continues for more than 

 four or five days together. The six feet of young wood laid in each 

 frame contains on the average nine good eyes, which generally produce 

 18 fair-sized bunches. As the shoots of the Vines grow, they must 

 be carefully tacked to the wall, and their laterals must be pulled oft". 

 When the bunches of Grapes are full-grown, a nail or two must be 

 withdrawn, and pieces of lath with a notch cut in one end to receive 

 the shoots must be placed between them and the wall, so that the 

 bunches may hang clear of it, which will prevent their being bruised 

 by pressure against it, or turning mouldy when ripe, from the damp- 

 ness issuing from it. The Black Hamburgh Grapes begin to colour 

 towards the end of August, and are fit to eat about the middle of 



