THE OPENING YEAR 



securing a moist atmosphere by keeping the house Jan. 

 closed, except for an hour or two on sunny mornings, I~I5 

 and damping the walls and floors. Warmth and moisture 

 encourage the bursting of the buds. 



Amateurs' Vines. — Amateurs who have only one house 

 of Vines, and who are unable to give constant skilled 

 attention, should not attempt this early forcing, but 

 should let the plants rest until spring. The work for 

 them at this period of the year is to prune and clean the 

 Vines, if this work was not done in the autumn. The 

 pruning consists of shortening the side shoots (termed 

 "laterals") which bore fruit the previous summer to 

 their base, where there should be one or two plump 

 buds. There is thus nothing left except the main rods 

 or canes, with the buds, which will give the current 

 year's fruiting canes in due course. If there has been 

 any mealy bug (a noisome white insect, which gathers in 

 clusters on the Vines, and even spreads to the Grapes, 

 rendering them filthy), the rods should be scrubbed with 

 a paraffin-oil and soft-soap mixture, which may be pre- 

 pared by boiling a pound of soft soap in a quart of water, 

 stirring in half a pint of paraffin oil, and working the 

 whole up with a syringe in five gallons of water. 



Vegetables 



Little, if any, work other than preparing soil, and 

 manuring, is likely to be possible out of doors, but 

 vegetables can be forced under glass. 



Early Asparagus. — Asparagus is not often forced in 

 small places, but forcing is quite feasible for those 

 gardeners who have a range of pits or deep frames. If 

 the structure be heated by hot-water pipes, the only thing 

 that need be done is to put in about a foot of manure, 

 39 



