74 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 



down right along the border, within 12 feet of the 

 front of the house, and then cleared away all the old 

 soil and raised the roots close up to the front wall. 

 We thus had the whole of the roots disengaged from 

 the soil, as there was then no border inside the house. 

 I had them laid as fast as possible into the new soil, 

 and well watered. Their foliage all flagged and hung 

 down; but I kept the house close, moist, and warm, and 

 excluded all the direct rays of the sun effectually. The 

 berries in the bunches were the size of peas, and for a 

 few days they were quite wrinkled in their skins. At 

 the end of a week the leaves began to turn up a little. 

 I then took off the tarpaulin and put on a lighter shad- 

 ing of tiffany, and in the course of another week I 

 removed this also and put on hexagon netting. In a 

 month from the date of the operation they were per- 

 fectly recovered and growing fast. They ripened 30 Ib. 

 of good grapes the same year, and in 1856 bore a splen- 

 did crop of fruit, and continued to do so for three sub- 

 sequent years. The vines were, however, old, and had 

 been pruned on the long-spur system, which rendered 

 them unsightly. All our other vineries were planted 

 with young vines in 1856, and in 1860 were in full 

 bearing. Under these circumstances I was induced to 

 make arrangements for doing away with the old vines 

 in question, but, before doing so, determined to have 

 one more crop off them as early as possible in 1861, and 

 replant the house the same year. To hasten this I re- 

 moved a pine-pit no longer required in the house, the 

 removal of the front wall of which gave access to the 

 roots of the vines in the outside border through the 

 arches of the front wall of the house. I then filled the 



