Grapes. 



395 



Fig. 439: 

 Spur pruning. 



without fire-heat, twelve or fourteen feet wide, at about eight dollars 

 per running foot ; and with the addition of a heating apparatus, at 

 ten dollars per running foot, constructed as cheaply as possible. 



The training commonly adopted in grape-houses is 

 by means of what is termed spur pruning, the side 

 snoots of the main stem (which is carried up from the 

 border to the peak) being managed similarly to the bear- 

 ing shoots on the horizontal arms already described for 

 hardy grapes, but kept shorter. Fig. 439. 



It would be impossible, within the space of a few 

 pages, to give full directions for the management of 

 a grape-house. The following brief instructions, from 

 A. J. Downing, contain all that is essential for a cold 

 house : 



"ROUTINE OF CULTURE. In a vinery without heat 

 this is comparatively simple. As soon as the vines 

 commence swelling their buds in the spring, they 

 should be carefully washed with mild soap suds, to 

 free them from insects, soften the wood, and assist the 

 buds to swell regularly. At least three or four times 

 every week, they should be well syringed with water, 

 which, when the weather is cool, should always be done in the morn- 

 ing. And every day the vine border should be duly supplied with 

 water. During the time when the vines are in blossom, and while 

 the fruit is setting, all sprinkling or syringing over the leaves must 

 be suspended, and the house should be kept a little more closed and 

 warm than usual, and should any indications of mildew appear on 

 any of the branches, it may at once be checked by dusting them 

 with flour of sulphur. Air must be given liberally every day when 

 the temperature rises in the house, beginning by sliding down the 

 top sashes a little in the morning, more at mid-day, and then gra- 

 dually closing them in the same manner. To guard against the sud- 

 den changes of temperature out of doors, and at the same time to 

 keep up as moist and warm a state of atmosphere within the vinery 

 as is consistent with pretty free admission of the air during sunshine, 

 is the great objecl; of culture in a vinery of this kind." 



Further directions for the management of grape-houses will be 

 f^iven in the Monthly Calendar of work. 



A successful manager of grape-houses gives the following as the 

 leading requisites for success with a cold grapery : " First, the 

 border must be well drained, or naturally dry, and have a depth of 

 two and a half or three feet of good soil an old pasture sod, with 



