286 CULTIVATION OF VINES IN GREENHOUSES. 



left it over night, doing passive duty, having been conveyed 

 by water from its moorings, and anchored in the fishpond beyond 

 all recovery, deep in mud ; and, independent of tlie heavy cost 

 entailed by an unforeseen affair like tliis, the inconvenience and 

 confusion caused by such a heavy job falling out, perhaps, in tlie 

 middle of summer, where a limited number of hands were hardly 

 able to make liead against the current of other routine labour 

 that comes before them, call loudly for some reform in tliis de- 

 partment. The inaccuracies in the formation of walks are 

 beyond all bearing ; when cut once or twice a year by a handy 

 labourer according to the rule of thumb, they outrage all lines, 

 levels, and parallels : look at the curves and gradients of any of 

 the tramways from a coal-pit or a slate-quarry, and compare 

 their engineering with ours in the science of road-making. The 

 colour, too, is so important that our best landscape gardeners are 

 at their wits' end to find hard, bulky articles of the right hue to 

 make up the shades of the picture, and thus we see yellow grit 

 and pounded brick and crystal spar employed as road-stuff, 

 whereas the potter who has power over the clay can not only 

 mould and fashion it to any shape, but also to any shade of co- 

 lour. I have now before me a list of prices of marl hexagons,* 

 which I dare not exhibit lest it might deter from any reform in 

 this affair, for it is hardly to be expected that we can step from 

 the present mud and pebble walk to the encaustic tile of various 

 colours at one bound, and therefore I would beg leave to defer 

 this part of the subject until I see what kind of reception this 

 innovation upon ancient usage may receive at the iiands of those 

 who have the means to mend their ways. 



Si. Mary's Church, Torquay, Sept. 8, 1849. 



XXXVI. — On the Cultivation of Vines in Greenhouses. By 

 James Hutchison, Gardener to Colonel Scudamore, Kent 

 Church Court, Herefordshire. 



(Received July 20, 1849.) 



The vine has been successfully cultivated in pine-stoves and 

 vine-houses in Britain for many years, but its culture in the 

 greenhouse has not been attended with equal success. This 

 may proceed from various causes, such as the condition of the 

 vine-border, improper temperature, aeration, &c. If the border 

 be imperfectly drained, or the soil exhausted, the first thing to 

 do is to remove the earth of the border to the deptii of three feet, 



* From Messrs. Miuton and Co., Stoke-upon-Treut, Staftbrdshire. 



