38 Culture of the Vine in Pots. 



we are not yet fully aware; repeated experiments will only decide 

 this. It certainly will never take the place of the old method of 

 cultivating and raising the vine in borders, either as a saving of room, 

 expense, or for procuring a more abundant and richer crop. The 

 vine naturally loves a deep, rich, nourishing soil, and its strong and 

 very rapid growth requires that its roots should not be confined to the 

 small space of earth contained in a common garden flower-pot. But 

 as a source of facilitating and accelerating the ripening of the fruit — 

 as affording a means by which grapes may be produced from a mere 

 cutting, in the very short space of eighteen months — as offering a 

 substitute for standard vines, in a green-house or grapery, which it 

 may not be desirable to fruit till they have acquired strength and 

 size, and thus saving a loss of time to the cultivator — and, especially, 

 as being within the power of any one who has not a proper or suitable 

 place for raising grapes by the common methods — we think that the 

 system will be of much utility ; and, if their management is per- 

 fectly understood, it will afford to the gentleman, the amateur, or the 

 practical gardener, a pleasing source of gratification and delight, in 

 thus producing this most refreshing and delicious fruit. For what 

 can be more beautiful, or more convenient, and above all, more agree- 

 able to our friends or ourselves, than to place upon our tables a vine 

 loaded with its rich and blushing fruit, to be plucked fresh from the 

 branch, while growing in its full vigor, luxuriance and health. 



The vine has been cultivated in pots for many years, and the 

 method was adopted by some of the first writers and practitioners. 

 Nicol mentions it, in his Calender, very particularly ; Abercrombie 

 and others recommend the trial ; but we find very little information, 

 as respects the practice, till the experiment was pursued with the 

 energy and zeal of the philosophical president of the London Horti- 

 cultural Society. In a paper, upon early forcing, read before the 

 Society, in June, 1817, and published in their Transactions (Vol. II. 

 p. 369 — 373), we find the following statement: — "A pot containing 

 two cubic feet of very rich mould, with proper subsequent attention, 

 is fully adequate to nourish a vine, which, after being pruned in au- 

 tumn, occupies twenty square feet of the roof of the hot-house ; and 

 I have constantly found that vines, in such pots, being abundantly 

 supplied with food and water, have produced more vigorous wood, 

 when forced very early, than those of the same varieties, whose roots 

 were permitted to extend beyond the limits of the house." Mr. 

 Knight does not state how large a crop of grapes such a vine would 

 bear, thus treated ; and we may infer, that, as no other communica- 

 tion on the subject has appeared, the method was not extensively 

 practised by him. 



Since tliat time, however, many have attempted this method of 

 cultivation ; and among others, who have been very successful, are 

 Mr. Buck, Mr. Stafford, and Mr. Mearns. The two latter gentle- 

 men have written much upon the subject, in Paxton's Horticultural 



