CULTURE OF GRAPE-VINES. 



1842, August 16, Pitniastons ripe. 

 Sept. 4, Black Ilamburghs, ripe. 



1843, June 1, vines in bloom. 

 August 15, cut two bunches. 



17, " ten 



18 and 20, cut thirteen bunches. 

 26 and 27, " thirty-three. 

 15 to September 5, two hundred and forty. 

 Sept. 5 to Oct. 7, six or seven hundred. 

 After Oct. 7, six or seven hundred — the whole crop being fifteen hundred and 

 thirty-six bunches, on one hundred vines planted out in 1840, in outside border. 



The following hints may be u.seful to those who are their own architects and gardeners: 



1. Build with as much glass, and as little material that will condense moisture, as pos- 

 sible. 



2. Place house east and west, and glaze ends as well as roof, and let it be exposed on all 

 sides to sun and light. 



As this last direction differs from some opinions expressed in the Horticulturist, I give 

 the following reasons for it. I found a house so placed to answer perfectly well, and not 

 to have any inconvenience from too much heat on the south, or too little on the north side. 

 In some seasons, all the light and heat that can be obtained, is not too much to ripen the 

 wood thoroughly; and although I do not know that a house running north and south will 

 not answer perfectly well, yet I have some doubt whether the wood and fruit buds will 

 ripen as perfectly every year, as in one running east and west. 



Hints for management. — 1. Uncover vines as early as they are perfectly safe from any 

 sudden check, or in this climate, about the first of May. 



2. Force the growth as much as possible, by opening the house late and closing it 

 early, and giving but little air until the grapes begin to color. The degree of heat which 

 the vine will bear in our bright climate, is generally under-rated. 



3. Keep the shoots constantly stopped a joint or two above the fruit, 



4. Prune as soon as possible after wood is ripe, so that the wounds may heal before win- 

 ter. With attention to these few rules, a crop even of the Alexandria Muscat, (one of the 

 grapes not easily raised in England without fire,) may be secured every year in this cli- 

 mate, in a cold house; and any heating apparatus iseiitirel}'^ unnecessary, unless you wish 

 fruit before the middle of August. 



Mr. Knight, in a paper read to the Horticultural Society, May, 1816, explains rery 

 full}' the forcing by closed houses, and sun heat. This article is well worth republishino-, 

 as it is especially applicable to this climate, where as j'our correspondent on the culture 

 of the Victoria Regia observes, a much greater degree of heat can be kept up, than in Eno-- 

 land. I think it not impossible that grapes could be ripened in Ward's cases, in our 

 summer weather. I have kept a house closed for some time, I tbhik two or three weeks, 

 without injur}' to fruit or vines, in mid-summer. H. C. 



Boston. 



[As we recognise in the above, the pen of " one who knows," we take the occasion to 

 add that our preference for a north and south Vine for a viner}', must be taken as applica- 

 ble to the climate of this country generally — of wliich the middle states must be taken as 

 the average. The climate of Boston, (and New-England generally,) is much cooler in 



er than that of Philadelphia — and therefore, so much less identical with that 

 countr}' generally. Ed.] 



