708 



AMPELIDE^E. IV. Vms. 



cularly applicable to cases where vines are trained to walls and 

 do not ripen their fruit nor bear well. The frame must be high 

 enough on the sides to admit of the vines being trained horizon- 

 tally on a trellis, to keep the pendant branches clear of the dung, 

 and to give free room between the vine branches and the glass 

 for the leaves. In the first or second week of April, just before - 

 the vines begin to move, you make up a common dung hotbed 

 at a convenient distance from the wall, or from the place where 

 the shoots of the vines are, the branches must then be introduced 

 into the frame, the back board of the frame being so constructed 

 as to slide off; these you train along the trellis already mentioned, 

 with their points directed downwards towards the front of the 

 frame. Vines produce an abundant crop in this way, and it is 

 found that the ripening of the fruit is accelerated by laying slates 

 on the dung ; the wall always yielding a supply of young 

 shoots for next year's crop. Various gardeners, as well foreign 

 as British, construct temporary frames or glass-cases against 

 vines on walls. Sometimes a temporary furnace and flue is built, 

 and excellent crops are obtained. Small vine plants will produce 

 fruit under a common hand-glass. 



Forcing vines in pots. This method is occasionally attempted 

 by gardeners, in pits and stoves, and several bunches are ob- 

 tained from each plant. The soil must be very rich and frequently 

 supplied with water and liquid manure. Marsland (Hort. trans. 

 3. p. 363.) had a succession of grapes during eleven months in the 

 year by forcing in pots. The pots were placed on stages, and 

 as the fruit is cut they are replaced by others ; at the age of 

 4 years they bear abundantly and produce large bunches. In 

 a temporary vinery or glass-case, placed against a wall on which 

 grapes were trained, T. Thorborn has ripened a late crop, and 

 kept the fruit on the trees in a state fit for use till February. 

 Mr. Ninian Niven (Loud. gard. mag. 3. p. 31 1.) forces grapes in 

 pots in flued pits, and trains the shoots along the trellis under the 

 glass. The pots are plunged in leaves or tan. After the vines 

 have fruited 2 or 3 times they may be thrown away and their 

 place supplied by others : by this means large fruit will always 

 be produced. 



Diseases and insects. Nicol considers the red spider the 

 grand enemy of the vine. After every winter pruning he re- 

 commends the branches, shoots, and trellis to be anointed with 

 the following composition to destroy their larvae : soft soap 2 

 pounds ; flower of sulphur 2 pounds ; nux vomica 4 ounces ; 

 turpentine a gill, boiled in 8 gallons of soft water. The compo- 

 sition to be laid on milk-warm with a hair brush, then with a 

 sponge carefully anoint every part of the plant, walls, flues, 

 rafters, &c. Abercrombie recommends all the shoots to be 

 washed with soap and water, and it may be mixed with sulphur, 

 the stems being previously stripped of loose bark. For the de- 

 struction of the turtle-bug, syringing the stems and shoots with a 

 strong infusion of tobacco-stem-water. Watering is the best 

 preventative of the red spider and green fly. To prevent birds, 

 wasps, and flies, several gardeners direct them to be excluded by 

 gauze frames, some recommend putting bags of gauze on each 

 bunch. M'Phail recommends nets with meshes an inch square. 

 Gathering and keeping the fruit. Grapes should be allowed 

 to hang till fully matured and ripened, especially the thick- 

 skinned and fleshy sorts. Even the thin-skinned and juicy 

 kinds, which are cut usually before they are perfectly ripe, are 

 much improved in flavour by being allowed to remain till they 

 are ripe, particularly the White Frontignac, White Srveetrvater, 

 and White Muscadine. The vinery, when the fruit is ripe, 

 ought to be kept dry and cool, in order to preserve the fruit as 

 long as possible on the branches, and thus to prolong the grape 

 season. The leaves round the bunches are to be picked off, and 

 a fire to be made in the day-time in gloomy weather. J. Thom- 

 son (Hort. trans. 4. p. 1 32.) preserves grapes in the vinery till 



February, by lighting fires in the day-time to dry the air and 

 dispel damp, and at the same time giving plenty of air, and 

 shutting the house close up at night. Fires at night, with the 

 house close shut, occasions a vapour, and causes the fruit to 

 become mouldy and to decay. Some kinds will keep on the trees 

 a long time by keeping the house dry and cool. Covering the floor 

 of the vinery with dry coal-ashes, 3 inches thick, prevents damp. 

 Forsyth (Treat, on fruit trees) preserves grapes by removal from 

 the tree, cutting off the branch when there are 2 or 3 bunches on 

 one, sealing both ends of the branch with common wax, then 

 hanging them across a line in a dry room, cutting out with a pair 

 of scissors any of the berries which begin to decay. He has 

 kept grapes till February in this way. He says grapes may 

 also be kept in packing jars, by wrapping every bunch in soft 

 paper, with a layer of grapes and one of bran alternately, till 

 you have filled the jar, covering the top with a bladder closely. 

 These jars may be kept in a room where you can have a fire in 

 damp weather. 



Culture of the vine in the open air. Vines require soil that 

 has a dry bottom ; in such as are rich and deep it will grow luxu- 

 riantly and produce abundance of large fruit ; but on a dry, gra- 

 velly, chalky, or schistous soil, it will produce less fruit, but of 

 better flavour. The greater part of the French vineyards, Bosc 

 observes, are on a argil-calcareous soil. Argillaceous gravel is 

 frequent near Nismes and Montpelier, and is that which produces 

 the vins des graves of Bordeaux. Both good and bad wines are 

 produced from the debris of granites, such as the hermitage of 

 the Rhone. The excellent wines of Anjou are made from vines 

 growing among schistous rocks. Wines made from vines on 

 chalky soils, are weak, colourless, and do not keep, as those of 

 Champagne. Retentive clays are the worst soils for the vine ; 

 in such a soil the shoots do not ripen, and the flowers prove 

 abortive. Switzer (Fr. gard. 149.) observes that the soil for 

 the vine should be light, with a chalky or gravelly bottom, free 

 from springs. -Hilt (Treat, on fruit trees, 12.) advises a mixture 

 of lime-rubbish, brick-bats, &c. for a foot deep in the bottom 

 of wall borders destined for the vine. The soil and situation, 

 Laurence observes, (Fruitgard.) can never be too dry for the vine. 



Manures. Dung, Speechly says, should never be allowed to 

 approach the roots of vines till it is reduced to a kind of black 

 earth. The dust and dirt of roads he esteems as a manure for 

 vines. He says vines are greatly injured by the common prac- 

 tice of laying lime-rubbish for the bottom floor in the prepar- 

 ation of the ground. Cow-dung is generally preferred for the 

 vine in France, but all kinds are used by vine growers ; the 

 more careful use composts of leaves, cleaning of ditches, ponds, 

 &c. which they turn over a year before using. Vines are al- 

 lowed by all gardeners to be rich feeders; the fertility of both 

 the Hampton Court and Valentines vines are attributed to their 

 roots having found their way, the former into a large sewer, 

 and the latter into a pond of stagnated water (Hort. trans. 3. 

 p. 337.). The cause of the fertility of the vines in the hot- 

 houses at Earl's Court is attributed to the nature of the soil, 

 which is composed of equal parts of garden earth and blood 

 mixed together, and repeatedly turned over one year before 

 using. Grapes are sometimes manured in Italy by digging in 

 the pruned shoots. 



Vine malls. A south wall is always preferred ; low walls 

 5-6 feet high, Speechly says, are best, as the plants grow 

 stronger and afford larger grapes ; at this height they enjoy both 

 the reflected heat of the wall and the earth. English gardeners 

 do not approve of flued walls for the vine. 



Planting. Where a wall is to be entirely covered with vines, 

 3 plants of a kind may be planted, weak growing kinds 3 feet 

 distance, and the strong growing kinds 4 feet, the 2 outer plants 

 of the 3 to be considered temporary, the middle one permanent, 



