V I T 



V I T 



the rafter as can be. The side shoot on the 

 other rafters should not he permitted to ramhle 

 over the adjoining hghts; but at the end of 

 every season it will be proper to cut such shoots 

 down to the second or third eye next the old 

 wood, provided the bottom eyes are bold and 

 strono; : this must be d.;ac not only to strengthen 

 the vines, but also to prevent the roof of the 

 house from being too much crowded with old 

 wood. Whilst the vines are voung, one rafter 

 will suffice for a vine-plant ; but when they be- 

 come older, thev will require a larger space ; 

 especially the strong-£!;rowing kinds, which 

 produce large leaves and bunches. It will be 

 proper therefore to train shoots sideways on the 

 wall-plate, from the stem of the plant, im- 

 mediately at its entrance into the houte. These 

 shoots should be carried up the adjoining ratters, 

 and the plants growing against such ralters must 

 be taken entirely away ; except it should happen 

 that the plant growing against such rafter is 

 trained forward to furnish the back wall. And 

 when a vine-plant occupies two or more rafters, 

 it will be right to prune occasionally, particularlv 

 \vl)il>t the vine is youne, one or more of such 

 shoots down nearly to the bottom of the rafter, 

 as this will not only contribute to strengthen 

 the plant, but afford means to furnish the rafters 

 with a succession of young wood." When the 

 shoots are thus conducted to difl'erent ratters, 

 every one may be considered as a separate plant, 

 and be trained up in one shoot; requiring ma- 

 nagement similar to that mentioned above. 



Mr. Nicol, however, rejects the method of 

 planting t\vi vines on the outsides of the houses, 

 and liis reasons are these : " first, he thinks it 

 unnatural that one part of a plant should be as 

 it were in Greenland, and the other in the West 

 Indies; and secondly, because he is convinced 

 that no plant (especially the Pine) w ill live and 

 thrive as well under tlie shade of another, as 

 when exposed to the free sun and air." To ob- 

 viate these objections, he plants the vines in 

 the lobbies between the stoves and peach and 

 grape houses ; introducing them through the 

 partitions, and training them horizontally on 

 trellises fixed against tin- back walls and upright 

 sashes in front. By which means he renders 

 each of the stoves as good as any grape-house, 

 w ithoui being in the least injurious to the pines. 



In these cases, he says, " the front walls of 

 the lobbies were built on pillars ; and a border, 

 both without and within, prepared for the 

 plants, ii\ the same manner as for the grape- 

 house." It is added, that in one trial, " the 

 second year after introduction into the stove, 

 the plants completely filled the whole trellis ; 

 and a fine crop, the third year, gave a lustre and 



richness to the house (in coiijunclion v/ith a 

 good crop of pines) highly gratifying." 



He remarks that "the same methods in re- 

 gard of watering, washing, and steaming, are to 

 be practised hciC as in the grape-liou»e. Air is 

 admitted solely for the sake, and to answer the 

 nature, of the pines; the temperature of the 

 house is also regulated fur their sakes. But 

 the nicde of training and p. uning is very diffe- 

 rent from that in the crrape-house. Here, you 

 have it not in your power vo bring on vegetation 

 in that slow and reguln- manner as in the grape- 

 house ; and consequcnily, were the shoots to be 

 laid in at as great lengths, they would only 

 break perhaps a few eyes at the extremities, and 

 the rest remain naked. This he found from ex- 

 perience to be the case; although it did not 

 happen for the first three or four years, owing 

 to the youth and vigour of the plants : but when 

 they had exhausted themselves a little by bearing 

 a few crops, they began to break their buds in 

 the manner above stated. He therefore made it 

 a practice to train theai only to five or six feet in 

 summer, and shorten tliem down to one or two 

 in the pruning season ; by which they generally 

 broke all their eyes, and produced plenty of 

 fruit." He further states, that in one house he 

 tried, for two seasons, to produce crops by 

 laterals ; but found that method attended with 

 more inconveniency than the above, from the 

 difficulty of procuring a proper succession of 

 strong shoots to produce the lali-rals, without 

 which they bear very insignificant clusters. He 

 also, in the other house, produced a second 

 crop, for two seasons ; but finding it to exhaust 

 the plants very much, he disc(;ntinued it ; the 

 more especially, as, having so many compart- 

 ments for grapes, the practice of it wa^ the less 

 necessary. The method is, he says, this: "Just 

 about the time the fruit is half ri|)e, and when 

 the under part of the shoot is also ripe to the 

 length of about two or three feet, and the ex- 

 tremity of it in a growing state, shorten it at about 

 two or three feet above the ripe part. It will 

 push again, and will generally bring two t lus- 

 ters. Sometimes, also, the second and third 

 eye will push, and bring a cluster or two. In 

 winter pruning, shorten down the first, or 

 spring-made part of the shoot, to two or three 

 feet. This method may be repeated, he thinks, 

 with pretty good success once in two or three 

 years: but, if done every year, it will (in the 

 course of three or four years) occasion the cut- 

 ting of the plants down to the ground, m order 

 to make them put forth a fresh stock of wood." 



He adds that "in the event of severe frost, 

 and the plants being in an early state of vege- 

 tation, the border on the outside should be co- 



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