104 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



against the vines when they start into growth. I have 

 first laid on the surface of the borders a layer of fresh 

 leaves, and then thatched it with wheaten straw. This 

 incurs much labour and litter. Wooden shutters are 

 much better, and corrugated iron ones better still, and 

 in the long-run the cheapest, from their durability. 

 The water which runs off these coverings at the front 

 of the border should be conducted by open gutters into 

 some drain, so that it does not keep the ground in front 

 of the border, where there are generally a mass of roots, 

 damp. 



Vine-borders should be copiously watered in the 

 heat of dry summers ; and to prevent rapid evaporation, 

 and nourish the vines as well, they should always 

 have a covering or, as it is generally termed, a 

 mulching of farmyard manure. All cropping of the 

 borders with vegetables or flowers is an evil, and 

 should never be practised. 



There is much difference of opinion as to whether, 

 in the case of early-forced vines, applying a bed of 

 fermenting material all over the surface of the outside 

 border a short time before forcing commences, is any 

 more effective in the absence of any means of heat- 

 ing from below than simply to cover the border to 

 a considerable depth early in autumn with some dry 

 material, to conserve the heat which exists in the soil 

 at that time. I once tested a border that had been 

 covered up early in autumn with 1 foot of leaves and 

 then thatched with straw ; and found, on plunging a 

 thermometer in the soil to the depth of 1 5 inches, that 

 in sixteen minutes it rose to 60. I regularly cut 

 grapes in April from the vines in this border, with all 

 the roots outside the vinery, and never applied any 

 other means of heating. 



