VIT 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



VIT 



763 



that of a single-pitted Pine-stove. The back wall fourteen 

 feet high ; the roof slanting, and covering an extent of about 

 sixteen feet; and a flue running from east to west near the 

 fVont wall. Such a building is well calculated not only for 

 Grapes, but for early crops of Melons, Strawberries, &c. 

 Glass being the principal article of expense in forcing fruit; 

 where there is a Peach-house, the glass-frames may serve 

 both for that and the Vinery, provided the buildings are 

 constructed of the same dimensions ; for as Peaches do not 

 require to be covered with glass later than the middle of 

 summer, a crop of Grapes may be got by means of the same 

 glasses after that season. Good crops of Grapes may also 

 be obtained from Vines trained against walls about six feet 

 high, by means of Melon-frame glasses, if a small slanting roof 

 is made of proper dimensions to receive the glasses. A small 

 degree of fire-heat would be of great advantage, and might 

 be applied either by a flued wall, the flue running through 

 the house, or by cast-iron pipes. The borders against these 

 hot walls should have the earth taken out two feet deep, 

 (provided the ground is dry,) otherwise one foot will be suffi- 

 cient, because in wet land the borders should be raised at 

 least two feet above the level of the ground, that the roots 

 of the Vines may not be injured by the wet. When the 

 earth is taken out, the bottom of the trench should be filled 

 with stones, lime rubbish, &c. a foot and a half or two feet 

 thick, which should be levelled and beaten down pretty hard 

 to prevent the roots of the Vines from running downward. 

 The trenches should be made five feet wide at least, other- 

 wise the roots of the Vines will in a few years extend them- 

 selves beyond the rubbish, and finding an easy passage 

 downwards, will run into the moist ground, and thereby 

 imbibe so much \yet, as to lessen the vinous flavour of the 

 Grapes; but before the rubbish is filled into the trench, it 

 is a better method to raise a nine-inch wall, at five feet 

 distance from the hot-wall, which will keep the rubbish 

 from intermixing with the neighbouring earth, and also con- 

 fine the roots of the Vines to the border in which they are 

 planted, so that they cannot reach to the moisture of the 

 ground about them. This nine-inch wall should be raised 

 to the height of the intended border, so will be of great use 

 to lay the plate of timber of the frames upon, which it will be 

 necessary to cover the Vines when they are forced, whereby 

 the timbers will be better preserved from rotting ; and where 

 the borders are raised to any considerable height above the 

 level of the ground, these walls will preserve the earth of the 

 borders from falling down into the walks ; but in carrying 

 up these walls, it will be proper to leave little openings 

 about eight or ten feet distance, to let the water pass off, 

 because when the rubbish at the bottom of the trench unites 

 and binds very hard, the water cannot easily find a passage 

 through it ; therefore it will be the better method to leave 

 these small passages in the front wall, lest the moisture being 

 confined at bottom, should be pent up as in a ditch, which 

 will be of ill consequence to the Vines, but these openings 

 should be two feet below the surface. When the walls are 

 finished and thoroughly dry, the rubbish should be filled 

 in, as before directed ; then there should be fresh light earth 

 laid upon it two feet thick, which will be a sufficient depth 

 of soil for the Vines to root in. These borders should be 

 thus prepared at least a month or six weeks before the Vines 

 are planted, that they may have time to settle. The best 

 time to plant them is about the end of March, or the begin- 

 ning of ApVil, according as the season proves early or late. 

 These should be planted with cuttings rather than rooted 

 plants, for the reasons before assigned, but there should be 

 two cuttings put into each hole, or placed at a nearer 

 VOL. n. 129. 



distance, lest any of them should fail ; for if all should suc- 

 ceed, the weakest of them may be easily drawn out the 

 following spring. These cuttings should be well chosen 

 from good bearing Vines, and the shoots should be well 

 ripened, otherwise they will never make good plants. The 

 distance these Vines should be allowed to remain is the same 

 as for common walls, i. e. about six feet. In planting them 

 there should be holes opened with a spade, about fourteen 

 or fifteen inches deep, for if there be but three or four inches 

 of good earth under the foot of the cuttings it will be suffi- 

 cient; then the cuttings should be laid in the holes a little 

 sloping, afterward the earth should be filled into the holes, 

 and gently pressed with the foot to the cuttings, and raised 

 in a heap over them, so as just to cover the uppermost eyes 

 of the cuttings ; afterward lay a little mulch on the surface of 

 the ground about the cuttings, to prevent the sun and air 

 from drying the earth, and if the spring should prove very 

 dry, they should have some water once a week, which will 

 be as often as the cuttings require it, for nothing will destroy 

 them sooner than too much water, which rots their bark, 

 and destroys them. In pruning Vines, the best method is, 

 not to shorten the shoots from which the cuttings are to be 

 made, but to lay their ends just into the ground, about two 

 inches deep, and so leave them at full length, only observing 

 to cover them with dry litter or pease-haulm in frosty dry 

 weather, though in moist weather the covering should not 

 remain on, because it would make the cuttings grow mouldy, 

 which would greatly injure them. Then in the spring, when 

 they are to be planted, they should be taken out of the 

 ground, and their upper part cut off, so as to reduce them 

 to about fourteen inches in length, according to the distance 

 of the buds or eyes ; for those cuttings whose buds grow 

 pretty close together, need not be left more than one foot 

 long, but in others fourteen or sixteen inches will be full 

 short. The leaving the upper part of the shoots on all the 

 winter is of great service to the cuttings, because when they 

 are cut off in autumn, the air penetrates the wounded part, 

 and greatly injures the other eyes. The management of these 

 Vines, for the three first years after planting, being the same 

 as is practised for those against common walls, is fully 

 treated of already ; only observe, that during these three 

 years, the Vines should be encouraged as much as possible, 

 and the shoots not left too long, nor too many in number on 

 each root, that they may be duly ripened and prepared for 

 bearing the fourth year, which is the soonest they should be 

 forced ; for when any sorts of fruit-trees are forced by fire 

 too young, they seldom continue long in health, so that 

 what fruit they produce is small, and not well-flavoured; 

 therefore, in being over hasty to save a year or two, very 

 often the whole design miscarries ; for unless the trees are in 

 a proper condition to bear much fruit, it is not worth while 

 to make fires for a small quantity of starved ill-tasted fruit, 

 the expense and trouble being the same for ten or twelve 

 bunches of Grapes, as it will be for a hundred or more. 

 These Vines should not be forced every year, but with good 

 management they may be forced every other year, though it 

 would be better if it were done only every third year; there- 

 fore, in order to have a supply of fruit annually, there should 

 be a sufficient quantity of walling built to contain as many 

 Vines as will be necessary for two or three years, and by 

 making the frames in front moveable, they may be shifted 

 from one part of the wall to another, as the Vines are alter- 

 nately forced; therefore forty feet length of walling each 

 year is as much as one fire will heat; and when the Vine* 

 are in full bearing, will supply a reasonable quantity of 

 Grapes for a middling family ; but for great families, twice 

 9 H 



