THE GRAPE VINE. 443 



deep, covered in with paving stones supported by brick walls, and 

 traversed by hot-water pipes about a yard apart, according to the 

 width of the border. These are heated, when forcing commences, so 

 as to raise the temperature of the soil of the border to about 60, and 

 at that it remains until such time as the vines are in bloom, when it is 

 gradually increased, until during the ripening process it attains, ac- 

 cording to the kind of grape grown, 70 to 80, the latter temperature 

 being necessary for the full maturation of the Muscats. 



Now, the objections to this kind of heating are threefold. First, 

 unless the pavement be cemented and made perfectly impervious to 

 the roots of the vines, they pass through into the chamber beneath, and 

 so long as the moisture is kept up they increase and multiply to a great 

 extent, and the vines grow vigorously ; but directly the moisture is 

 withdrawn, a process necessary to the proper maturation of the crop, 

 the grapes begin to " shank and spindle," and the crop never attains 

 full maturity. Secondly, without very careful management, there is 

 the danger of the border becoming over-heated, and the crop suffer- 

 ing in that way. Thirdly, if the hot- water pipes get out of order, it is 

 next to impossible to get to them for repairs. Under these circum- 

 stances, Mr. Westland, who has had practical illustration of all that we 

 have said against the plan of isolating and sub-heating, recommends 

 that the heating pipes, instead of being placed beneath the border, 

 should be placed in a trench in front of it, from which, at right angles, 

 earthenware socket pipes properly jointed in cement shall be placed 

 thirty inches apart, through which the heat will pass into the house, 

 and thus keep up a constant circulation of warmed air into the house, 

 and at the same time give the necessary heat to the border. An 

 arrangement of this kind will admit of easy management at all 

 times, and the heat of the border may be increased or decreased ac- 

 cordingly as the valves connected with the pipes inside the house are 

 opened, partly opened, or shut. It is also proposed that this arrange- 

 ment shall act as a system of ventilation, by which a stream of warmed 

 air shall at all times, night and day if necessary, be forced into the 

 house. This system we consider as near perfection as possible, and by 

 it an expensive apparatus is not used for a few months in the forcing 

 season, but may be used throughout the year if considered expedient ; 

 in iact, by this system the sub-heating of the border becomes a part, 

 and a very important one, of the atmospheric heating of the house. 



Going to the practical application of the system, the bottom of the 

 border space is supposed to be concreted ; the conduits are laid, and 

 over them, in ridge-and-furrow style, the draining material of the 

 border, through which the heat circulates and warms the overlying 

 soil. Of course it is necessary that a border of this kind should be 

 protected from cold rains through the winter, and for that purpose 

 either glass frames, wood shutters, or thatch may be used, the first of 

 course being the most desirable material, and perhaps the cheapest, 

 inasmuch as it may be used to forward other crops when not required 

 for the border. 



One other system of heating may be named, and, as it is practised 



