182 THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



from our scheme, and if the bunches only average one pound each, we 

 maj expect an annual supply of 336 lbs. of grapes, so we may set 

 down our expectations at from 300 to 400 lbs. when the rods quite 

 fill the space allotted them. 



The beds marked b are to be cultivated the whole year round 

 with useful vegetables, one important part of the routine being to 

 plant them all in autumn with cauliflowers, lettuce, endive, sweet 

 herbs, or the hardier kinds of bedding plants. As soon as the 

 Aveather becomes wintry, the glass frames are to be removed from tlie 

 vines and placed over these beds ; they are to be placed on bricks, of 

 course, to allow of ventilation, and duriug very severe weatlier mats 

 must be put over and the ventilating holes must be stopped with 

 moss or straw, or half bricks inserted. A total length of 168 feet 

 of protected beds would be of immense value to those who prize 

 early cauliflowers, lettuces, and such other subjects as would be 

 kept through the winter in them. Instead of having to lift and 

 replant them, as is the case when we winter them in frames, they 

 would simply remain Avhere planted in autumn, the lights being 

 removed from about the end of April or later, according to the state 

 of the weather. This would expedite the maturation of the crop 

 considerably, as there would be no check from lifting or sudden 

 exposure of protected plants to cold winds, which is the common 

 case in kitchen garden routine, for the frames would be put on the 

 cauliflowers at night and on the vines all day, at that critical season 

 when winter and spring are contending for the mastery. The only 

 effect of such treatment would be to retard, not injure the vines ; 

 and as such things as Hammersmith lettuce and sweet herbs of most 

 kinds do not need protecting so late in the seascm as cauliflowers, 

 vines desired to be started early might have their glasses put on 

 about the first week in April, by which time the protected vegetables 

 would be out of danger. 



In all my experience, I do not think I have ever seen a proposal 

 which, by its obvious utility, so commended itself to the favourable 

 consideration of amateur cultivators as the one I now submit. It 

 may indeed be worth the attention of market gardeners, indeed I 

 think it would be a great improvement on the methods usually 

 followed in many market gardens in the growing of cauliflowers, 

 lettuces, sweet herbs, etc., etc. There is just one thing to remember 

 as regards its suitability for both the amateur and the market 

 grower, that whereas the first would prefer Mr. Dennis's or Mr. 

 Wells's neatly-finished vineries, the second would go to work and 

 make them for himself. It is a very simple afiair of carpentering 

 and glazing. To say how it should be done would be to load this 

 series of papers with needless descriptions. I shall, therefore, pause 

 once more, but with the intention of again returning to the subject 

 of Grapes for the Million. 



^ Shikley Hibbeed. 



