Grapes. 



393 



DISTANCES FOR PLANTING. The European pra6lice of placing 

 the vines about four feet apart, each way, and training to a single 

 stake, has been adopted to a considerable extent. It succeeds best 

 on poor and light soils, and with the slower growing sorts. Although 

 it does well for a few years, it is not to be generally recommended. 

 Young cultivators, also, fall into the error of placing their vines too 

 near together, when trained with horizontal arms on a common 

 trellis. They bear and succeed well while young, but as they be- 

 come older require more room. It is a common practice to place 

 the lines of trellis eight feet apart, and the vines twelve feet from 

 each other, along each line of trellis. This distance appears to 

 answer well ; but some of the best managers give at least twelve 

 feet each way, and others as much as sixteen feet. The space thus 

 given, not only tends to a more healthy growth and freedom from 

 mildew, but develops larger, finer, and more perfect grapes. 



GRAPE-HOUSES. It rarely occurs that the foreign varieties are 

 successfully cultivated in the open air, and the protection of glass 

 becomes necessary. A house without fire heat is comparatively 

 cheap, and is managed with moderate attention. 



Grape-houses are of three kinds : the cold house, which only pro- 

 tects from the exterior changes of the weather, and retains the heat 

 of the earth and of the sun ; the forcing house, used for ripening 

 early grapes by the assistance of arti- 

 ficial heat ; and the late house, to be 

 also heated artificially, to ripen, during 

 winter, the later varieties. 



The best cold houses are made with 

 span-roofs, as in Fig. 436 ; while the 

 lean-to house, Fig. 437, is best adapted 

 to forcing, affording better security 

 against the admission of cold. For 

 this purpose the latter should also 

 have a double wall at the back. To 

 admit the free passage of the roots 

 under the walls, the border being on 

 both sides, the posts should be either 

 stone or brick piers, set deep enough 

 in the ground to be unaffected by frost, 

 and the walls built upon thick con- 

 necting slabs of stone near the surface. 



Fig. 436. Span-roof Grapery. 



Fig. 437. Lean-to Grapery. 



Posts of durable timber will last many years, when the structure is 

 built of wood. In the latter instance, the back wall should be 



17* 



