322 Memoirs uj the Caledunian Horticultural Socicti/. 



Art. II. Memoirs of i/ie Cah-dnninn Iluriiculturnl Socieli/. 



Vol. IV. Part II. 



(ConlhtucdJ'rnm p. 187.) 



63. On heating Hot-houses hij Sleanu By the Rev. James Armi- 

 tage Kliodes, Horslbrth Hall, near Leeds, Sept. 22. 1825. Head 

 Dec. 7. 1826. 



TnLS paper, modified a little, appeared \\\ tliis Magazine 

 (Vol. IV. p. 330.). 



64. Account of a Mode of training Vines on the Outside of the 

 alternate Sashes of a Hot-house, hy lohich means excellent Grapes 

 tvere produced. B\ James Macdonald, Dalkeith Park. Read 

 Dec. 7. 1826, and Jan. 4. 1827. 



These grapes are from vines which were trained over the 

 sashes of a glazed hot-house ; they were well swelled, and of 

 the ricliest flavour, the summer and autumn of 1826 having 

 been peculiarly favourable for ripening fruits. 



The vines had been " planted about fifteen years, outside of a small 

 stove for the cultivation of tropical plants. The vines have generally been 

 l)rought into the stove every spring, and traincti u|) to the rafters to pro- 

 <Uicc their fruit ; and in the autunni, when the fruit was matured and cut, 

 the vines were turned out to the open air to winter. 



" But for these two or three years past, in the sj)ring, when the vines 

 were introduced into the house tor a crop, I left some of the short wood 

 on the vines outside in the open air ; and I found that they maturetl their 

 fruit every year, ecjual, both as to size and cjuality, to those within the 

 house. This year (182G), all the rafters in the stove being covered with 

 choice ornamental creepers, I was imluced to make a trial of my whole 

 vines in the open air outside. Accordingly, in the s|)ring, when the buds 

 began to swell, I laid the whole vines down on the ground ; and, to preserve 

 them from the sjjring frosts, I covered them over with mats ami s|)rucc fir 

 boughs, till the end of May. I then trained all the shortest vines on the 

 front ashlar wall [a wall made of freestone as it comes from the quarry], 

 whicli is about 2. J ft. higii, filling in as many as it coidd contain. I then 

 took the longer shoots, and trained them up the front upright rafters, 

 keeping the upright front glass clear. I next procured sonie very thin 

 Jaths, and tacked them on each alternate fixed light on the sloping roof, so 

 as not to prevent the running lights from giving the usual air for the house 

 and i)lants. We tied the vines to the laths as we went along. They 

 remaineil in this state till the end of August ; when I found that those 

 vines on the sloping glass were not making such progress as those on the 

 front ashlar building, or on the front ui)riglit rafters, the fruit not swelling 

 (■(|ually well. With a view to remedy this, I and one of my young men 

 got a lew blocks of wood, .'iin. high and 1;^ in. in width, and nailed them 

 upright on the centre of the long rafter, -2 ft. .Sin. apart, on each alternate 

 light ; we got long laths, and stretched them along these blocks, in the direc- 

 tion and according to the slo[)e of the sashes, nailing the laths to the l)locks. 

 Then we i)egan at the bottom of the light, and got some small laths to 

 reach across the light; we nailed our stretchers on the top of the laths, 

 and then lifted up the vines anil grapes on the top cross- stretchers, tying 

 and rcgidating iheni as we proceeiliil. The cross laths are placed about 

 18 in. asunder : thus placing them about 7 in. above the rafter, anil about 

 10 in. above the glass. This finished the operation. 



