September 23, 1873. 1 



JOUaX.\.L OP HOSTIGOLTURE AND OOTIAGE GARDENER. 



229 



EVENING MUSINGS FOR PLAIN PEOPLE.— No. 7. 



1 N thinking further on this subject I have 

 need to recapitulate for a moment. The 

 object is not to teach those learned in Grape 

 lore, but to aid and encourage those whose 

 homes lack a supply of the princely fruit, 

 '■j^ and who are yet in possession of means 

 , which might be turned to account, and use- 



rp' ful Grapes be produced in a comparatively 



easy and inexpensive manner. Elaborate 

 preparation and a high system of culture are 

 beside the point. Plain, simple, and natural means are 

 alone considered. I would not look at the subject as a 

 gardener's question — yet, in passing, I may note a few 

 points in practice and obser\-ation which some brother 

 gardeners may possibly read and ponder over — but rather 

 as an everybody's affair, for I would like to see this lus- 

 cious, wholesome, and most valuable fruit growing and 

 ripening in every village in the land, and within the easy 

 reach of all. I would especially like to see it at hand to 

 soothe, comfort, and nomish in sickness, as well as to 

 add to the gi-atifications of those in health. I would not 

 desire that the culture of tlie Grape be Hmited to those for 

 mere family or personal pleasure, or even with a charitable 

 or benevolent object solely, but would like ten thousand 

 amateur growers to try their hand with the view of dis- 

 posing of their surplus as a marketable commodity, and 

 benefit themselves and others too. Grow cheap and sell 

 cheap, is a principle I would like to see in universal opera- 

 tion. It will pay as well as growing dear and selling dear, 

 and be of infinitely greater benefit to the general commu- 

 nity. I would not " go in" for ornamental and naiTow 

 span-roofed structures, subject to alternate roasting and 

 starving — extremes of heat and cold — longing for cloud in 

 the day and crying for fuel at night ; or for costly borders 

 of which the soil is carted for mUes, and paved with 

 Yorkshire slabs ; or for numerous and new vai-ieties, re- 

 markable for glowing characters and long prices, which, 

 however, may be well merited in a proper place, but here 

 not adaptable. I would rather advocate simple lean-to's 

 of glass, supported by the walls of dweUings, or by other 

 existent walls having a good aspect to S.S.W. or S.E., 

 and would not be frightened by due E. or full W., if any 

 adjacent shelter could break the force of sweeping gales. 



I would prefer a rafter or roof as long as possible, and 

 to this confine the glass. In a good-sized place vertical 

 light is enough ; and ends and sides wholly or in great 

 part of more soUd material economise heat and con- 

 tribute to a more steady and eciuable temperature, and in 

 perfectly dry and well-drained localities, if the ground 

 floor of tlie house is a few feet below the general level of 

 the ground, all the better. Very bright and lofty struc- 

 tures are not the places for unskilled amateurs, as in such 

 hands the probability is they would make sad work with 

 fuel to grow red spider. In view of high-class culture in 

 the hands of professionals the case is different, and even 

 then it is easy to err in the matter of mere height of 



Ko. 652.— Vol, XSV., Kew SiriBS. 



structure, without giving due consideration to length and 

 breadth. The more limited is the superficial arua to be 

 enclosed the lower should be the roof consistent with 

 space for convenient working. The products of ground 

 vineries prove the soundness of this principle, and the 

 excellent Grapes grown in mere heated brick pits with 

 sunken pathways confirm it. But especially, in address- 

 ing amateurs contemplating a little vinery, I say. Do not 

 hoist your glass too high in the air, particularly if the 

 house be narrow, with sides or ends of glass. With stone 

 or brick walls go as high as you like, and cover with glass 

 instead of slates or tiles ; put a flooring across a foot or 

 so below the wall plate, and you may have useful Grapes 

 above at no cost, and cows, or pigs, or implements, or 

 what not below, just by utilising unoccupied roof space. 

 I have seen Grapes thus grown in a village — or rather 

 they grew themselves, as the bunches were never thinned 

 — and people ran for miles after them at Is. Gd. per lb. 

 This was, as the owner said, " all profit," as he did not 

 give six hours a-year in the way of attention ; the sun 

 did all the heating, and a few vessels of guano water stood 

 about did all the syringing — i.e., top moisture, and kept 

 insects completely at bay, whUe Grapes grew and ripened 

 in wild luxuriance and semi-neglect, which sick and sound 

 bought freely ; thus proving at once a want in the dis- 

 trict and an easy v.'ay of meeting it. With a little rea- 

 sonable care in dressing and thinning, these Grapea 

 (Hamburglis) would have been really excellent fruit, and 

 as good as some — and I speak without hesitation, except 

 so much as assures me of cool and correct assertion — 

 which I saw exhibited at the Manchester Show, for some 

 there were really grand and others hardly so. 



The above is only an idea thrown out as it were pa- 

 renthetically of a structure which may be placed by the 

 side of Mr. Pearson's Apricot sheds, and I can answer for 

 its being as good in its way as the Apricot "hit," equally 

 easy, and common sense. I think I have heard of some- 

 thing of the same kind being carried out in Scotland, 

 where a gentleman grows beef and Grapes under the 

 same roof, and the best of both. There are, no doubt, 

 plenty of places where, by using glass instead of slates as 

 a covering, much useful fruit of different kinds might be 

 easily and profitably gi'own. 



But I would mainly urge the erection of neat useful 

 structures on sites already formed by blank wings of 

 dwellings or unoccupied walls. With a good wall, or 

 possibly a recess between two walls, the job is half done, 

 and the rest is easy and inexpensive. Glass or verandah- 

 like covered ways to the entrance of dwellings are also 

 capitally adapted for producing useful Grapes without 

 any fuss or science about the matter, and without any 

 artificial heat at all. These glass approaches further add 

 a feature of ornament and comfort to a residence, and 

 are easy to make bright and sweet by a few flowers. 

 This is not a mere crotchet, but a fact proved. Only a 

 few evenings ago I happened to look into one of these 

 very places, and found the owner in an easy chair with 

 Grapes hanging over his head and a bunch on thc^ table 

 by his side, with a bottle of wine of his own growth and 



No. 1301.— Vol. L., Old Sgiues. 



