i86 J/K GARDEX. 



gentleman at Naples told me that he had more than two hundred 

 kinds in his garden. At Wallington we grow no outdoor vine. In 

 the orchard-house about eighteen varieties were tried, but failed. The 

 growth of the peach, nectarine, apricot, and fig is the especial object 

 of the orchard-house, and the treatment they like does not seem to 

 be agreeable to the vines, as very few bunches ever come to perfec- 

 tion. The vines in the orchard-house are continually attacked by the 

 Erisaphe or oi'dium (see Fungi), and the crop rendered worthless. 



In the Poor Man's House we restrict our kinds to three, one vine 

 being a Sweetwater, a second the Black Prince, and the remainder 

 Black Hamburgh. 



The Poor Man's House is situated on a bed of coarse, poor gravel, 

 but I had a mind to plant the vines in it as an experiment. The 

 vines made hard, short-jointed wood. They were planted four feet 

 apart ; and as the glass is ten feet long, each vine had forty square 

 feet of glass. Since they have been planted the vines have been 

 manured yearly with stable dung. They have had ivory dust 

 sprinkled over the ground, and the best top spit loam, from four 

 to six inches, has been placed at the top of the soil. 



The colour of the grapes is perfect, the size of the bunches large ; 

 the individual berries are also large, but the flavour is most intense; 

 in fact, I think that these grapes are the best I taste anywhere. In 

 this house, which has 480 superficial feet of glass, 204 bunches were 

 produced in 1871, of about 152 ib. in weight. 



The house has only two 3- inch pipes, but the heat from them is 

 sufficient to start the vines by February 15, to flower them by April 5, 

 and to ripen the fruit from the 1st till the middle of July. 



In the Grapery the vines are kept back to start as late as possible ; 

 to ripen their grapes by the first week in September, when they give 

 fruit till the end of February. At the Grapery, the vines were planted 

 in top spit loam with some brick rubbish, but this border has not 

 proved so good as the natural soil, as the loam was too heavy. I 

 intend to rectify this border by removing some of the heavier loam, 

 and by adding stable manure and brick rubbish, which I believe 



