374 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[April 10,! 



Iwr of rainy days wan 172, BRninet '21G, in 1860, and there wafl 

 frost on 80 days. Tlic hottCRt day was June '21st, and the 

 coldest Februarj- 15th. The highest reading of the barometer 

 was on December llith, ;i(P..S7 inches, and the lowest on 

 January 14th, 28.14. I may further add that the average rain- 



fall at this place for the ten years ending witli IHC), is 24.75 

 inches, so that the fall in 1865 was nearly 'iD percent, in excesB 

 of the averape, and what we have already hsid in the first two 

 months of IHliO is more than three times the average of these 

 months. — J. Robsos. 



CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS. 



{Continued from par^f 253.) 



It is a common practice after preparing the eyes to insert a 

 dozen or more in a pan, and after they have struck and begun 

 to grow to pot them off into small pots. The advantages of 

 this system consist in the necessity for watering being dimi- 

 nished, and they are, conse- 

 quently, not so liable to rot 

 or become blind, and a more 

 ecfuable temperature is secured 

 than were they inserted singly 

 in small pots at first. These 

 advantages, however, I have 

 found more than counterba- 

 lanced by the check received 

 on potting the eyes after they 

 have been struck. I find they 

 receive a serious check on 

 being taken from the pun, and 

 potted into small pots ; for 

 however carefully the opera- 

 tion may be performed, it is 

 not possible to avoid breaking 

 the roots more or less. 



Some, again, grow the canes 

 for fruiting in nine-iuch pots, 

 and supply them largely with 

 liquid manure. Of this practice, 

 also, I am no advocate. lu small 

 pots fruiting canes are either 

 highly fed by liquid manure, or the roots have been allowed to 

 extend from the pot into a border of rich soil. In the first 

 case, the continual stream of liquid manure converts the soil 

 into a soapy black mass, and the roots lose most of their 

 fibres at the fall of the leaf ; besides, there cauuot be nearly 

 so many roots, and consequently mouths, in a small pot as in 



a large one. In the other case the roots, from being allowed to 

 extend beyond the pot, arc for the most part (and the better, 

 portion of themi lost to the cane the year of fruiting. To in- 

 sure the Vine breaking well there cannot be too many fibrous 



roots in the pot it is to be 

 fruited in ; but when the canes 

 have been allowed to root 

 through, or are potted into 

 larger pots, it is necessary that 

 these should be plunged in a 

 hotbed of about 70' for a fort- 

 night or three weeks, the top 

 heat from fire heat being kept 

 at from Vr to 4")'. The accom- 

 panying end sections will show 

 means for furnishing bottom 

 heat for a time, and after- 

 wards a medium for the Vines 

 to root iuto. 



Fill. 1 shows a span-roofed 

 house 12 feet wide, with a 

 walk in the centre and a 

 border of soil on each side, 

 18 inches deep, over rubble. 

 The pots are placed a couple 

 of inches deeper in the soil 

 than the side holes in the 

 pots, through wliich, and that 

 at bottom, roots will be protruded in due course. It is not 

 a desirable form of house for early forcing, but will do after 

 Christmas. The soil of all the borders should consist of turves 

 a year old, chopped with a spade, and one-sixth of boiled half- 

 inch bones. Over the drainage a layer of sods, grass side down- 

 wards, will keep the rubble from becoming choked up witli 



Fig. 2. 



soil ; and under the drainage or rubble should be a drain to 

 carry! off the water. Ko manure is to be mixed with the soil, 

 as it is best given on the surface. 



Figs. 2 and S are the same in their internal arrangements, 

 both having convenience for fruiting Vine.i and raising young 

 ones in the centre bed u, which should be filled with new tan 



