VARIOUS METHODS OF HEATING DESCRIBED IN DETAIL. 231 



and under every circumstance, would be folly. But its utility 

 in winter-forcing, especially where the soil is damp and natu- 

 rally cold, will be obvious to any one of much experience in 

 these matters. The greatest success has attended the applica- 

 tion of border-heating, in England, where an enormous amount 

 of money and labor is annually expended upon the forcing of 

 grapes, and where they are produced in great perfection all the 

 year round. 



I have said that where early forcing is practised, and the soil 

 and sub-soil of a cold, retentive nature, the adoption of some 

 method similar to the above is almost indispensable to general 

 success. I wish, however, to be rightly understood, and not to 

 mislead, and therefore advert to what ever} 7 gardener knows well, 

 that good grapes are sometimes produced under the entire neg- 

 lect of all the ordinary precautionary measures resorted to by 

 good gardeners for the purpose of securing success. 



In support of this method of heating borders, I will briefly 

 advert to the opinions of some of the leading gardeners in Eng- 

 land. Mr. Fleming, gardener to the Duke of Sutherland, at 

 Trentham Hall, writes to the Gardener's Chronicle, four years 

 ago, to the following effect : " Shrivelling was common here, 

 until the system of keeping up a bottom heat in the vine bor- 

 ders was introduced. Since then there has been no appearance 

 of it, except in a late house last year. In the month of August 

 we had a great deal of rain, which penetrated the border, and 

 the weather was for a few days very cold, and the grapes, which 

 up to that time were swelling beautifully, received a check, and 

 shortly after many of the fruit-stalks shrivelled." 



In the same paper Mr. F. makes the following statement, 

 which is the strongest evidence of the utility of the system that 

 has come under our notice : "I am so convinced," says he, 

 " of the advantage of this practice, that I would prefer the 

 introduction of flues under every vine border about the place, 

 did circumstances permit." This method is also employed at 

 Welbeck, with the greatest success. There the soil and sub- 

 soil are heavy, cold, and wet ; and without some such precau- 

 tion, grape-growing would be but a barren business. But by 

 this method of chambering the borders, and other good manage- 

 20* 



