VIT 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



VIT 



765 



therefore the glasses may be kept off continually in the day- 

 time, unless the season should prove very cold and wet, in 

 which case they must be kept on, and only opened when the 

 weather is favourable ; for as the racy vinous flavour of these 

 fruits is increased by a free air, so during the time of their 

 ripening, they should have as large a share as the season will 

 admit to be given them. Before the Grapes begin to ripen, 

 they must be carefully guarded against birds, wasps, and 

 other insects, otherwise they will be destroyed in a short 

 time ; to prevent which, the Vines should be carefully covered 

 with nets so as to exclude the birds, who make great havock 

 with the Grapes, by breaking- their skins ; and if there are a 

 few twigs, covered with birdlime, placed here and there on 

 the outside of the nets, it will be of service, because the 

 birds are often so bold as to attempt to break the nets to get 

 to the Grapes ; which, if they attempt, they may be so en- 

 tangled on these twigs, as not to get loose ; and whenever 

 that happens, they should not be disengaged, but suffered to 

 remain to keep off their companions ; and if they get off 

 themselves, it will have the desired effect, for there will few 

 other birds come to the same place that season. As to the 

 wasps, the best method is to hang up some phials about half 

 rilled with sugared water, and rub the necks of the phials 

 with a little honey, which will draw all the wasps and flies to 

 them, which, by attempting to get at the liquor, will fall into 

 the phials and be drowned; these phials should be carefully 

 looked over once in three or four days, to take out the wasps 

 and destroy them, and to replenish the phials with liquor. 

 If this be duly observed, and the phials placed in time, 

 before the Grapes are attacked, it will effectually prevent 

 their being injured ; but where these precautions are not 

 taken, the Grapes will be in danger of being absolutely 

 destroyed ; for as these early Grapes will ripen long before 

 any others against common walls, they will be in much more 

 danger, there being no other fruit for them at that season in 

 the neighbourhood ; whereas when Grapes in general begin 

 to ripen, there is a quantity in almost every garden ; so that 

 if they destroy a part in each garden, yet there will be a 

 greater chance to have some escape, than where there is only 

 one wall for them to attack. These sorts of Grapes being 

 forced in the manner before directed, will begin to ripen 

 early in August, especially the Black and Red Frontinacs, 

 which will be fit for the table a fortnight earlier than the 

 other sorts ; but as the design of forcing them is to have 

 them in as great perfection as possible in this climate, they 

 should not be gathered until they are thorough ripe, for which 

 reason some of the latter sorts should be left on the Vines till 

 September; but then the glasses should be kept over them in 

 wet and cold weather, to protect the fruit from it, but when- 

 ever the weather is fair, the glasses must be opened to let in 

 the free air, otherwise the damps, arising from the earth at 

 that season, will cause a mouldiness upon the Grapes, which 

 will rot them; so that if the season should prove very cold 

 and wet while the fruit is upon the Vines, it will be proper 

 to make a small fire every night to dry off the damps, and 

 prevent this injury. Most people in England gather their 

 Grapes too soon, never suffering them to remain on the Vines 

 to ripen perfectly, even in the warmest seasons, when, if they 

 are left on till after Michaelmas, they will be good. 

 Directions for the management of Vines in the Hot-house or 

 Pine-stove. Having a Hot-house built according to the in- 

 structions given under the article Stoves; and having taken 

 the proper precautions to lay it dry by drains, and by a floor 

 of clippings of stone, coarse gravel, broken bricks, or lime 

 rubbish, eiaht or ten inches thick, over which a thin layer of 

 fine loam may be well puddled to fill up the chinks, if neces- 



sary, on account of having a retentive clay soil or a barren 

 sand ; and having given the whole a fall of six or eight 

 inches ; unless the soil should happen to be a rich sandy 

 loam, fill up the area with a compost-mould composed of one- 

 fourth strong loam, one-fourth turf from a pasture where the 

 soil is a sandy loam, one-fourth sweepings or scrapings of 

 pavements or hard roads, one-eighth rotten cow and stable- 

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

 decayed Oak-leaves ; the grass must be well rotted, and the 

 whole worked together till it is uniformly mixed. Where 

 sandy loam cannot be had, common sand may be used ; and 

 the mould of rotten sticks, or old woods, or from hollow 

 trees, may be substituted for decayed leaves. This border 

 being prepared, if the weather will permit, the Vines may be 

 planted at the end of February or the beginning of March, in 

 front of the hot-house, or stove ; having first taken the pre- 

 caution to put a little moss round the upper part of each stem, 

 with two or three folds of paper over it, tied with bass-matting, 

 to prevent the eyes from being injured in putting the plants 

 through the holes in the wall. Opposite to each rafter, and 

 close to the front wall, make a hole two feet over, and one 

 foot deep ; make the mould taken out of the holes fine, and 

 add a little of the compost. Turn the plant carefully out of 

 its pot, and put the upper part through the hole. If the 

 shoot will just reach the bottom of the rafter, when planted, 

 it will be sufficient, but as the earth may settle a little, it is 

 better to allow two or three inches for this circumstance. In 

 closing the mould to the plant, care should be taken to pre- 

 serve the roots, their fibres being exceedingly brittle. Lay a 

 thin coat of rotten dung over the mould, and give the plant 

 a gentle watering ; then take off the bandage, and fasten the 

 top of the shoot to the rafter. Only one shoot should remain, 

 on each plant. Two may be left for a time, but when one is 

 secure, the other must be taken off, but not close to the 

 old wood s as that would occasion it to bleed. From the 

 time the Vines begin to grow, they will require constant 

 watering, especially in dry weather, and before the roots have 

 penetrated deep into the border. Train a shoot up to each 

 rafter, and if the rafters be not a sufficient depth to keep the 

 leaves of the Vines from touching the glass, fix iron pins of 

 about nine inches in length, at proper distances under eacii 

 rafter ; these should have a small hole or eye at the bottom, 

 through which a small iron rod or strong wire should bo 

 thrust, for the support of the branch. The pins and wires 

 must be painted. The Vine-plants will frequently shew fruit 

 at one year old, but this should not be suffered to stand, 

 except a single bunch, if wanted to ascertain the sort. 

 During the summer, water the roots constantly ; keep them 

 regularly fastened to the rafters ; divest them of their wires 

 and lateral shoots ; and, above all, guard them against the 

 depredations of the red spider and other insects. The Vines 

 may be permitted to run two-thirds of the length of the 

 rafters, twenty or twenty-five feet, before they are stopped : 

 and those which grow remarkably strong, may be suffered to 

 run the whole length of the rafters, or about thirty feet. 

 After these shoots are stopped, which is done by pinching off 

 their tops, they will, in general, push out laterals, at three or 

 four eyes on the upper part of_ the shoot ; it will be prudent 

 to permit these to grow twelve or fourteen inches before their 

 tops are pinched off. These, in their turn, will push out 

 secondary laterals, which should be pinched off at the second, 

 or third joint; and thus the sap may be diverted till the end 

 of the season. November and the beginning of December, 

 when the loaves begin to fall, is the best season for pruning. 

 The first season, supposing the Vines to have grown with 

 equal vigour, the shoots may be primed alternately to three, 



