FIRST WEEK IN FEBRUARY 



large quantity of tepid water, and (when the fruit is set) a 

 daily dose of soot-water (or other liquid manure), besides 

 the thorough morning supply of water, will be useful to 

 swell the grapes ; and these must be thinned and the 

 side-shoots pinched off (two leaves above each bunch) as 

 soon as possible after the grapes are set. If well attended 

 to, and syringed with tepid water daily (closing the house 

 at 3 o'clock p.m. for the night, and opening it early, 

 but gradually, in the morning), excellent grapes may be 

 grown in a 1 2-inch pot, or a box of about the same size, in 

 an ordinary greenhouse. 



In the vinery various plants and seeds are being forced in 

 a convenient little hot-bed made up on the hot-water pipes, 

 which are here double. To do this, it is only necessary to 

 knock the bottom out of a common deal box of a convenient 

 breadth and length to fit the position, and substitute for the 

 wood a piece of fine wire-netting. The box can then be 

 placed on the pipes, and almost filled with clean moss, which 

 has been dipped into boiling water to destroy all lurking 

 insects in it. A thermometer placed in this moss should 

 show a temperature of about 80, and the fire must be 

 kept up steadily to maintain this. It is easy to increase 

 the warmth by placing a piece of wood or glass over part of 

 the box, if necessary, but a very high temperature is not 

 desirable for most plants, especially during their early 

 stages. The moss which composes the hot-bed is kept 

 continually wet with warm water, and everything plunged 

 in it is also kept moist with the same from a can kept also 

 on the hot-water pipes, so as to be of the same temperature. 

 In this little hot-bed there are pots of lilies-of-the-valley, 

 which come into bloom in three weeks from the time they 

 are plunged, covering them at first with the moist, warm 

 moss, but allowing them to emerge from it as they grow, 

 for they need to be carefully hardened before they are 

 placed in the dry, cool atmosphere of a room. 



A number of very small pots contain each the seed of an 

 Indian shot (Canna indica), which has been previously 

 soaked in warm water (on the pipes) for forty-eight hours ; 



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