APPENDIX. 129 



in short, just where they would hang if suspended 

 from a wire in the centre are nearly or quite ripe ; 

 the bunches on the slates are not quite in so forward 

 a state of ripeness, but the ripest of all are the bunches 

 hanging so that their tips touch the slates. This, I 

 hope, has settled the question, so that we may now 

 have our vines trained to wires in ground vineries, 

 and calculate that, if the bunches are suspended so 

 as to touch or partially lie on the slates, thus benetit- 

 ing by their radiation of heat, grapes will ripen well. 



