310 VILLA GARDENING part iv 



suited about an unsuccessful early vinery, whose failm-e was 

 entirely owing to false economy in the matter of jDipes. During 

 the forcing season the pipes had to be unduly heated to keep up 

 the requisite temperature, and the atmosphere became so scorched 

 and dry that it was impossible for healthy progress to be made. 

 Much of the annoyance and loss arising from the attack of red 

 spider may be traced to this cause. It is a "penny wise and 

 pound foolish " system. It is always best to call in some practical 

 man to advise as to the size of boiler and the amount of pipe that 

 should be employed, for although there are certain general rules 

 laid down in scientific l)ooks as to the amount of pipe required to 

 warm any given number of cubic feet of air to any special degree 

 of temperature, yet there are always local conditions and circum- 

 stances which should lie taken into consideration in all calculations 

 of this nature. The ventilation, or the means of changing vitiated 

 air for fresh, should be ample, openings near the ground line being 

 especially important ; and if the stream of air from this source be 

 brought immediately into contact with the hot pipes on its admis- 

 sion so much the better. The early vinery may be any size, but 

 from 30 to 40 feet long, and from 13 to 16 feet wide, is a good 

 useful size ; height of back wall to be about 14 or 15 feet, and the 

 front 6 feet 6 inches or 7 feet high, the upper 3 feet of the front to 

 be glass lights made to swing on pivots with machinery. Some- 

 times the top ventilation is in the upper part of the back wall, but 

 for the early house I like the ventilators to be in the roof. When 

 the openings are to the north, cold draughts are created. As regards 

 the ground-line ventilation referred to, this may be effected by 

 inserting ventilating bricks in the bottom course above the ground 

 line, the means being at hand to close them when not reqiured. 

 The front wall should be built on arches, or on 14-inch piers 

 placed under each rafter, on which the wall-plates can rest. 



Makinc; the Boeder. — In some situations good Grapes have 

 been gi-own without any very elaborate preparation of the border. 

 But the vine pays best with generous treatment, and in nine cases 

 out of ten, if stinted and starved by ]jlanting in a makeshift border, 

 the result is not satisfactory. For early work I prefer a narrower 

 1)order than is commonly made, with an occasional lifting of the 

 roots, adding at the same time ^ fresh turfy loam. The usual guiding 

 principle is to make the border as wide as the rafters are long, so 

 as to allow the roots to extend as f;xr as the branches. This 

 princii^le need not always bind us hard and fast, as in cold damp 

 situations I should prefer a narrow border, well under control, with 

 the means of correcting the slightest tendency to disorganisation 

 should the iLSual evidence appear of long-jointed wood or a 



