134 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



cultivated in pots, in order that it may be forced ; 

 that is, be compelled to produce fruit long before 

 the time when it will be produced in the open air. 

 This forcing consists simply in cultivating the vine 

 in a hothouse, or tempered greenhouse. Buy 

 vines, if you can, all trimmed and ready for bear- 

 ing, and place the pots containing them at the 

 foot of the posts supporting the arches of your 

 terrace arbor. They will there find a suitable 

 support in the situation the most favorable to the 

 ripening of the fruit. Train them so as to make 

 them grow in festoons. In due time grapes will 

 be there, within reach of your hand, hanging in 

 golden bunches, all the way from the base of the 

 pillars up to where the vases are suspended at 

 the centre of the arches. 

 "Will not this be charming ? 



Trimming and Thinning. 

 Two things are indispensable to make your 

 grapes as good as they ought to be to cut off 

 the top of the vine, which must be done as soon 

 as its young grapes are formed, and as large as a 

 pea, and to thin out the grapes when too thick in 

 the bunch. 



