AMPELIDE^E. IV. Vms. 



703 



formed a union, lest the grafted part spring from the stock. 

 But in whip or cleft-grafting the clay may be taken off when the 

 scion has made shoots 5 or 6 inches long. 



Culture of the vinery. On the culture of so important a fruit as 

 the vine, it is not surprising that there should be a great variety 

 of opinions. We shall only give those of modern British gardeners. 



Soil. Speedily, late gardener at Welbeck, made use of the 

 following compost. One-fourth part of garden mould (strong 

 loam) ; one-fourth of the turf from a pasture where the soil 

 is sandy loam ; one-fourth of the sweepings and scrapings 

 of pavements and hard roads ; one eighth of rotten cow and 

 stable-yard dung mixed, and one eighth of vegetable mould 

 from decayed leaves, turned over and broken with the spade ; 

 then put it to the other materials and work the whole well toge- 

 ther. Treat, on the vine, p. 25. He also covers his vine beds 

 with a coat of gravel 2 inches thick. Abercrombie recommends 

 " of top spit sandy loam from an upland pasture, one-third part ; 

 unexhausted brown loam from the garden one-third part ; 

 scrapings of roads free from clay one sixth part ; vegetable 

 mould or old tan reduced to earth, or rotten stable-dung, one- 

 eighth part." The borders he recommends " to be from 3 to 5 

 feet in depth, and where practicable, not less than 4 feet wide in 

 surface within the house, communicating with a border outside 

 the building of not less than 1 feet wide." M'Phail gives the 

 following directions : " To make a suitable border where it is 

 required for the grape-vine, provide a large quantity of earth of 

 a loamy nature, that from arable land or from a ridge, in which a 

 hedge-row, or hazel, maple, &c. have grown many years and have 

 been grubbed ; or a spit deep from the surface of a common, long 

 pastured, or from the head or end lands of a corn-field. For 

 forcing vines do best in a strong deep loam, not destitute of a 

 mixture of sand and well manured with rotten dung, on a dry 

 bottom of hard clay." Nicol says, " the average depth of a 

 border should not be less than a yard, if 4 feet so much the 

 better. The border should not be narrower outside and inside 

 of the house than 30 feet. The soil should be thus composed : 

 one half strong hazelly loam, one fourth light sandy earth, an 

 eighth part of vegetable mould or decayed tree-leaves, and an 

 eighth part of rotten dung ; to which may be added a moderate 

 quantity of lime or shell marl. These articles should be well 

 mixed before planting." Wm. Griffin, who has received the 

 medal of the Horticultural Society for his skill in cultivating 

 vines at Woodhall in Hertfordshire, forms his vine borders as 

 follows. After being completely drained, the whole bottom is 

 covered with brick, stone, or lime rubbish about 6 inches thick, 

 and on this is laid a compost of " half good loamy soil with its 

 turf, one quarter of rich solid old dung, and one quarter of brick 

 and lime-rubbish, the turf well rotted, and the whole well in- 

 corporated." Hort. trans, vol. 4. p. 100. D. Judd (Hort. 

 trans, vol. 4. p. 4.) uses the following compost : half of rich 

 gritty loam from a common ; a quarter of rich old dung ; 

 and a quarter of lime-rubbish and leaf-mould mixed together. 

 These materials were kept separate and frequently turned during 

 winter, and when afterwards mixed, were not sifted, but laid on 

 a prepared bottom to a depth of 3 feet. He says he does not 

 use so much dung as is usually done, because though the vine 

 will bear an extraordinary quantity of manure, yet its growth is 

 thereby retarded, especially when young. He recommends the 

 addition of old tan, from having experienced (with Speechly, 

 Mitchell, and others) that the vine will root in that more freely 

 than in any other substance. 



Choice of plants. Those raised from eyes and have been 

 properly trained to a single shoot the second year after having 

 been struck are preferred ; but where plants have to be sent 

 from a great distance, Justice prefers cuttings to plants contain- 

 ing an inch or two of the old wood and 12 of the new ; these 



he plants at once where they are to remain, as practised in 

 France. Mr. Neill, Edinb. encyc. art. hort. details a speedy mode 

 of storing a new grape-house. However, this mode can only be 

 practised where a vinery exists previously, or where there is a 

 friend's vinery in the neighbourhood. In the end of June or 

 the beginning of July, when the vines have made shoots 10 or 

 12 feet long, and about the time of the fruit setting, select any 

 supernumerary shoots, bend them down so as to make them a 

 double or flexure, into a pot filled with earth, taking care that a 

 portion of last year's wood, containing a joint, pass into the soil 

 in the pot ; keep them each in a wet state, and at the same 

 time maintain a moist warm air in the house, and in a week or 

 10 days roots will be seen proceeding from the joint. The layer 

 may now be safely detached. Very frequently it contains 1 or 

 2 bunches of grapes, which continue to grow and come to per- 

 fection. A new grape-house may be furnished in this way with 

 plants in 3 months as by the usual method in 3 years ; for in 

 the second year they will yield a good crop of grapes, but they 

 should be allowed only to bear a moderate crop the first year, 

 for if allowed to bear a full crop the first year, the plants would 

 necessarily show their exhausted state by barrenness the follow- 

 ing year. A mode of more general utility is to select the plants 

 in the nursery a year before wanted, and to order them to be 

 potted into rather large pots, baskets, or tubs, filled with richish 

 earth and plunged into a tan bed. They will thus make shoots, 

 which, the first year after their final destination will, under 

 ordinary circumstances, produce fruit. 



Planting. Vines are commonly trained against a back wall 

 or a trellis under the glass roof. In the first case, the plants 

 are always planted in the inside of the house ; but in the latter, 

 there are two opinions among practical men, one in favour of 

 planting outside, and the other inside the parapet wall. Where 

 the vines are to be drawn out when in a dormant state, as is 

 generally the case with those trained under the rafters in pineries, 

 outside planting must be adopted ; but for vineries, where this 

 practice is not requisite, it seems preferable to plant them inside. 

 Abercrombie says, " let them be carefully turned out of the 

 pots, reducing the ball a little, and singling out the matted 

 roots. Then place them in the pits, just as deep in the earth as 

 they were before, carefully spreading the roots, and filling them 

 up with vegetable mould or light earth. Settle all with a little 

 water, and let them have plenty of free air every day, defending 

 them from severe frost and wet till they begin to push young 

 shoots." D. Judd (hort. trans. 4. p. 4.). The vines being reared 

 from eyes in March, cut them down to one eye the following 

 March, put them into bottom heat, there to stand until they pro- 

 duce shoots 2 feet long, afterwards harden them in the green-house, 

 where a temperature of 60 degrees is kept ; there to remain until 

 they grow 2 feet longer. Holes are made in the border in the 

 beginning of May, arid about a barrowfull of old rotten tan put 

 in each hole, in the middle of which the balls are placed, after 

 having been treated as follows : the leaves are cut from the lower 

 part of the stem 2^ feet of its length ; the end of the shoot is 

 then drawn through the hole in the wall, the ball is placed 2 

 feet distant from the wall on its side, so that the stem will lie 

 in a horizontal position, about 6 inches below the level of the sur- 

 face of the border, and that part of the stem which is to be co- 

 vered with earth is slit or tongued at every eye, to the centre of 

 the joint. This being done, the stem is covered with old tan, and 

 abundance of roots will be produced from every eye so slit. 

 After the roots had issued from the slits, it was surprising the 

 progress the shoots made, under Judd's management they were 

 from 25 to 30 feet long, and proportionate in strength. 



Season of planting. Plants that are in pots may be planted 

 at any time of the year, but the autumn and spring months are 

 preferred. 



