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HORTICULTURE 



December 14, 1912 



Construction of a Modern (Very Modern) Vinery Border 



Tilen have been constructing vine borders for several 

 jhundred years in one way or another and in glass houses 

 ifor a century at least. Up till comparatively recent 

 ii;imes these borders were outside altogether or both out- 

 side and inside; they were sometimes six feet deep and 

 fertilized by quantities of whole bones and frequently 

 lay whole carcasses. This kind of vinery border is ad- 

 anittedly a thing of the past, gone never to return. 



There are still some good growers who believe in the 

 •outside and inside border and no one will deny that 

 -where local conditions happen to be suitable, splendid 

 fruits have been produced under these conditions. How- 

 ■ever, the modem idea of the construction of vine bor- 

 ■ders is fairly well known to all horticulturists and has 

 Ibeen frequently written upon in Horticulture, but the 

 idea which I wish to expound is something different in 

 • detail and, to the best of my knowledge, new. 



This will be best understood by refering to the accom- 

 -panying plan which shows at the top a section of the 

 lorder and beneath a section through the planks of con- 



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C'd X t." r\ foncrete /iio 





) O'.en S/aee -for drai> 









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■Crete of which the bottom is made. A section lengthwise 

 •of this border would show the pitch of one-eighth of an 

 inch to the foot of the floor of the open drainage space, 

 which would give about six inches in fifty feet, but it 

 would be better in all cases where conditions would allow 

 to pitch it both ways from the centre. The outlet should 

 be a short piece of two-inch galvanized iron pipe with a 

 valve on the outside and to take full advantage of this 

 style of construction a pipe of any convenient size should 

 be connected to this open drainage space from the water 

 supply and of course valved on the outside and to make 

 it still more complete a separate pipe should be laid on 

 ior liquid manure, the purpose of these pipes being sub- 

 irrigation, not that we think water applied by sub- 

 irrigation has any peculiar virtues of its own, but rather 

 that it is a great time-saver and does its work so 



thoroughly, soaking every inch of soil in the border (so 

 many grapevines fail to do their maximum through in- 

 sufficient watering) and no one will question the de- 

 sirability of getting the liquid manure on the border in 

 some other way than the customary one. 



It is not necessary to fill the border for watering pur- 

 poses more than a few inches up from the bottom of the 

 soil as capilarity will do the rest providing the water is 

 left in for an hour or so. To ascertain the amount of 

 water in the border, set up a two-inch iron pipe over 

 one of the joints of the planks and reaching above the 

 top of the soil ; then with a stick it can easily be 

 iiieasuri'il. .V ('aipenter or handy man sliould liave no 

 difficulty in making a few moulds for the planks which 

 form tlie bottom and they should be one inch wider at 

 the top than at the bottom and spaced as shown in plan, 

 which will ensure perfect drainage (which also means 

 perfect aeration) and any particles of soil which should 

 get in between the planks will drop clear to the floor to 

 be subsequently carried away through the drainage out- 

 let. 



Instead of occupying the whole floor space of the 

 vinery, as is usually the case with the border, we make it, 

 at most, six feet wide and any depth from thirty to sixty 

 inches although the writer thinks about three ft. is the 

 preferable depth and will give 90 cubic feet of soil to 

 each vine if they are spaced five feet apart. The first 

 year the vines are planted, from six to eight inches of 

 soil will be ample and if the plants do well they will fill 

 this quantity of soil full of roots. The second year an- 

 other six inches may be added and so on till the border 

 is full. There is no need of being afraid of filling up 

 around the stem of the vine, as, done gradually, like 

 this, it will root all the way up. 



A few suggestions to those who make a Very Modem 

 vine border. Don't use anything but the concrete planks 

 in the bottom, as there is nothing else suitable. 



Cover the ends of the outlet pipes with some small 

 meshed galvanized wire to prevent vermin going in and 

 being a nuisance. 



Remember that this border will dry out rapidly and 

 therefore should be carefully watched in that respect. 



Don't think that because this is not the kind of border 

 they had where you served your apprenticeship it is no 

 good; rather submit it to reason and weigh up its good 

 or bad points against the ordinary border. 



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Lenox, Mass. 



Cover Illustration 



The attractive Christmas table which appears in the 

 centre of our cover design was the winner of the first 

 prize as a rose table decoration at the Cleveland exhibi- 

 tion, C. M. Wagner being the exhibitor. 



