GRAPE CULTURE IN THE VINERY. 



365 



foreign varieties of grapes, in a small cold- 

 house grapery. 



With your indulgence, I will give a 

 brief, general account, from the beginning, 

 for the benefit of any interested in this 

 subject. And I will state here, that I am 

 indebted to the Horticulturist, Hovey's Ma- 

 gazine, and a Treatise on the Culture of 

 the Grape, by J. F. Allen, of Salem, Mass., 

 for all the information I needed, in order 

 to the successful and gratifying results which 

 have attended my labors thus far. 



In the first place, I made in the autumn 

 of 1846, a good border. This is considered 

 indispensable ; and without which, it would 

 be just as useless to plant vines as it is to 

 plant truit trees in the way they often are, 

 and where the product is only disappoint- 

 ment. Our ground is light and sandy. I 

 dug from two and a half to three feet deep, 

 removed the subsoil and sand, and filled in 

 with a pretty large variety, — such as broken 

 brick, old mortar, turf sods, oyster shells, 

 leather parings from a shoe shop and tan- 

 nery, bones, compost of peat muck and ma- 

 nure, soil, &c., well mixed together. Not 

 much precaution being necessary in regard 

 to drainage, as there would be on a heavy 

 wet bottom. 



During the winter the house was built ; 

 a particular description of which is unne- 

 cessary, as several have been described in 

 your valuable journal. The mode of ven- 

 tilating, however, is somewhat different 

 from any I have seen described, and which 

 I think favorably of. I will go far enough 

 to give an idea of this part ; it being an 

 important one in warm weather. 



The house stands against a high, tight 

 board fence, and is about ten feet high. 

 The back wall and ends are of plank, one 

 and a half inch thick — matched. The 

 space between the house and fence is made 

 tight ; and is so far double, and has af- 



forded all the protection that appears to be 

 needed. 



The top sashes are stationary. The 

 front sashes are about two and a half feet 

 long, that is, up and down, hung with butts 

 at top, and swing outward. Whole height 

 of front wall is three feec eight inches. 

 From the top or apex of the house is a 

 slope, of about two feet, to the back wall, 

 half of which is open the whole length of 

 the building next the top. This is the part 

 I wish to notice. The rafters here are six 

 feet apart, which leaves openings of nearly 

 six feet in length, and one wide. These 

 openings are covered with doors, hung 

 with butts, which open upward, and back 

 against a balustrade. They are opened 

 and closed by hooks, about three feet long, 

 made of large wire, by which they are also 

 fastened when closed, if need be. 



Thus, the draft of air is directly under 

 the top sash, and in contact with the vines. 

 These and the front sashes, together with 

 a glass door at one end, and a window, 

 hung to swing open at the other, aflJbrd 

 very complete ventilation. 



I procured vines two years old in pots, 

 during the winter, and planted them out 

 on the 12th of April, 1847, previously cut- 

 ting them back to two or three eyes, trained 

 the best shoots and pinched off' the others. 

 I planted just outside the grapery, and near 

 the surface, — covering the roots from two 

 to four inches only, and mulched when the 

 weather became warm. This is of great 

 service, I think, to newly planted vines or 

 trees. The vines received some attention 

 almost daily through the season, and made 

 rapid growth, — measuring two inches in 

 circumference in the fall. They were not 

 over three-sixteenths when set out. Took 

 them from the trellis in November, and cut 

 them back to two and three feet, expecting 

 some fruit the next season, in which I was 



