EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 73 



of fungi would now lead me to omit the incisions, 

 especially where bottom heat is to be applied.) The 

 hampers were then cut away and removed, leaving the 

 great round flat ball full of fine young roots, to be 

 covered over with 4 inches of soil. The young canes 

 were from 12 to 14 feet long, two from each plant, 

 when planted. They did not receive the slightest 

 check to their growth, but made splendid canes to the 

 top of the house, and ripened thoroughly in the 

 autumn. They would have yielded a good crop of 

 grapes half-way up the house, in 1848, had they been 

 allowed to do so. As it was, they were allowed to 

 carry two bunches to each rod, making four to each 

 plant. In 1849 they bore twelve bunches on each rod, 

 and in 1850 the heaviest crop of Muscats I ever saw, 

 many of the bunches weighing 3^ Ib. ; and up to 1860, 

 when I saw them last, they have borne exceedingly 

 heavy crops of fine grapes. Had I prepared a double 

 set of vines in the same way, so as to have cropped 

 one-half the first year, and then to have cut them out, 

 the border and vines could have been renewed without 

 the loss of a single crop. From this house I have more 

 than once cut old grapes in March ; on one occasion, 

 on the 16th of that month. 



The only other case of this character which I shall 

 describe, as founded on my own experience, was the 

 raising of the roots of a house of vines in the gardens 

 at Dalkeith in June 1855. It was evident that the 

 roots of the vines in question had grown down to the 

 subsoil, and I determined to raise them and lay them 

 in new soil. On the 8th of June, after covering the 

 glass of the house with a tarpaulin, I had a trench cut 



