FOREIGN NOTICES. 



43^ 



wheels will also work the houses in which plants 

 are grown for market, without the effort being 

 felt, and with little aid from manual labor. Ca- 

 nadian timber cut at the sawmills, duty free 

 bricks, glass at 4d. a square foot, a little engi- 

 neer's work, and a clever gardener, will furnish 

 all the rest. 



Suppose that a tank made of bricks, lined with 

 inch Canadian planks, and six feet wide, were 

 caused to enclose a given area; that the tanks 

 were surrounded by twelve feet beds separated by 

 pathways from the outside walls, and that the 

 area enclosed by the tank were divided into six 

 feet beds accessible by narrow sunken paths. It 

 is evident that by a series of ridge and furrow 

 roofs any such area may be perfectly covered 

 over; and it is equally evident that, by some me- 

 chanical contrivance, such for instance as Hur- 

 ward's screw of Jones and Clark's rack and 

 quadrant, the whole of such roofs could be opened 

 or closed at pleasure, without the least difficulty. 

 The water from such roofs might be carried off 

 through hollow brick supports, upon which the 

 wall plats might be made to rest ; and if the soil 

 were dry enough, the whole structure, except the 

 roof, might be sunk, so as to avoid the cost of 

 thick outside walls, and to retain the heat extri- 

 cated from the tanks. Head-room for working 

 under might be obtained by excavation, and the 

 earth so excavated would make the raised beds, 

 which would be necessary in order to bring the 

 crops close to the light. It is probable that air- 

 heat enough for most crops would be obtained 

 by this arrangement alone; but if it were other- 

 wise, glazed pipes could be adapted laterally to 

 the tanks, and made to convey more heated water 

 to any place in which it could be required. In 

 the same way subterranean irrigation might be 

 effected; and in short every apjjlication of heat 

 and water of which a gardener has need. 



In such buildings plants would be grown as in 

 the open fields, beds of radishes and spring onions 

 in the coldest parts, beds of strawberries in others 

 somewhat warmer; seakale and rhubarb in cham- 

 bers under the footpaths; lettuces, endives, and 

 all sorts of winter salads in the same (juarters 

 with radishes and spring onions; Pine-apples in 

 the warmest parts; vines on the rafters, at such a 

 distance as not to ovorshadow the crops beneath 

 them; peaches and nectarines and apricots, with 

 figs, plums, cherries, raspberries, and the like, in 

 dwarf orchards apart, with the same crops be- 

 neath them as in the open fields. All this might 

 happen in winter; in May the glass roof might be 

 wholly removed, and the ground cropped as a 

 market garden, with this great advantage that 

 stil! there would be an advance upon the seasons, 

 and that the genial warmth of the tanks and un- 

 der-ground channels of heat would give to English 

 crops an excellence now only known in the sun- 

 heated soil of southern countries. The experi- 

 ments upon out-of-doors cultivation of the Pine- 



apple in summer, so cleverly tried at Bicton by 

 Mr. Barnes, the gardener to Lady Kolle, have 

 conclusively established the fact that Pine-apples 

 thus produced are infinitely better in flavor than 

 such as are nursed in a common hot-house. It is 

 probable that they would not cost much more than 

 cabbages; and at all events that if sold at the 

 price of the wretched things called West Indian 

 Pine-apples, they would yield a great return to 

 the grower. 



In this way quite a new description of market 

 gardening would spring up, a new employment 

 for labor be discovered, and a new field for the 

 profitable investment of capital. When carried 

 out, Paris and Berlin and Brussels may be sup- 

 plied with forced fruits and vegetables from Man- 

 chester, and new elements of national competition 

 be thus introduced, by which all may largely 

 benefit. 



This kind of gardening is not, however, pre- 

 cisely what the writer in Chambers' has referred 

 to. The subject of his remarks is gardening 

 without protection of any sort, by aid of earth 

 heat alone; quite a distinct question, to which we 

 may address ourselves next week. Gard. Chron. 



Grape- Vines in a Green house. — In looking 

 over a mass of letters, before consigning them 

 to the waste paper repository, I stumbled upon a 

 statement of our editor's, that "vines, &c., grown 

 in a green-house will come under your depart- 

 ment." If I had not thus afresh been reminded 

 of my duty it would have been no great matter 

 for regret, as those who wished for information 

 could easily find what was suitable to themselves 

 in the statements of that veteran authority who 

 provides over the fruit department. As some, 

 however, might imagine that what was said re- 

 specting the forcing of vines could have but a re- 

 mote reference to those growing in a greenhouse, 

 which might be said to be gently assisted rather 

 than forced, we shall at times advert to a few 

 prominent points, and the first of these shall be 

 the 



Pruning. — It has been said that the donkey first 

 taught the art of pruning the vine; man being 

 merely an imitator, after seeing the effect of that 

 very wise but much abused, and nicknamed stupid 

 animal, cropping the points of the young shoots. 

 Be this as it may one thing is certain, that seem- 

 ingly trifling facts when reasoned upon evolve 

 great principles. Even in countries where the 

 vine is a native, climbing the rock and festooning 

 the tree, pruning is resorted to; and how much 

 more is it necessary under our glass roofs, where 

 the concentration of the greatest possible vigour 

 and fertility in the smallest possible space is the 

 chief object aimed at. When once the matter is 

 thoroughly understood, the process of preparing 

 for pruning by disbudding in summer will become 

 the chief subject for consideration. The whole 

 ofothe phytological questions involved in such a 



