574f Training Vines in Puts. 



pot. The engine is regularly used three or four times a week ; 

 and about the middle of March 1 begin to use it in the after- 

 noon, just before the sun goes off the house, after which I 

 shut it up for the night. The roots of the trees are supplied 

 with food and moisture from my reservoir in the melon- 

 ground, with the contents of which I often mix a little soot. 



As soon as the fruit has attained its full size, I give the 

 house all the air I possibly can, and the leaves are not allowed 

 to hang over the fruit, as the air and sun give them a fine 

 colour and flavour. I gather my fruit about the middle of 

 May. Many of them last year weighed 1 1 oz. each, and the 

 young wood has become remarkable for the shortness of its 

 joints and its thickness in comparison to the length of the 

 shoot. I remain, Sir, yours, &c. 



BuscotParJc, March 15. 1830. John Merrick. 



Art. X. A Method of training Vines in Pots for Forcing. 

 By ViTicoLA. 

 Sir, 



ViNKS placed in pots for the purpose of forcing are not 

 only confined in space for rooting, but also in volume of head 

 sufficient for the production of fruitful wood. To obviate this 

 defect in practice, the following mode of training bids fair to 

 answer the purpose of the cultivator. 



A vine sufficiently sti'ong for the purpose of forcing (pre- 

 viously grown in a pot, and at the age of two years from the 

 layer) should be shifted into a pot of suitable size and com- 

 post, and cut down any time in the autumn or winter 

 months. In the spring it should be placed close to a south 

 wall. Allow one or two shoots only to be produced ; these should 

 be constantly kept nailed close, and divested of side shoots, 

 and the surface of the pot mulched, and watered occasionally if 

 necessary. In the autumn, when the summer growth is over, 

 prune down by cutting off the imperfectly ripened wood, and 

 remove the plant to a north 94 



aspect, where it may receive a 

 sufficient hybernation or win- 

 ter check from the first frosts, 

 securing the shoot or shoots 

 from the wind. When the time 

 arrives for the plant to be taken 

 into the forcing-houses, pro- 

 vide six or eight straight, well 

 painted taper sticks, about 3^ ft. ^ 



