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GRA 



which push from the sides must be 

 pinched back, leaving one bud only, and 

 this pinching must be continued all 

 through the season, when necessary. In 

 the second autumn they will be strong 

 canes, with remarkably plump buds; and 

 they may now, when the leaves are de- 

 cayed, be pruned back to some five or six 

 eyes, according to the wish of the culti- 

 vator. Having received their final shift 

 into pots of about fifteen inches in 

 diameter in the preceding June, they 

 will require nothing but a rich top-dress- 

 ing. They enjoy a bottom-heat of 70 

 to 80; but they may be made to succeed 

 on the kerb-stones or back shelves of 

 the stove, away from cold draughts, and 

 near the flues or piping. Liquid-manure 

 must be liberally supplied, and the same 

 course of culture as to disbudding, stop- 

 ping, thinning the berry, and training, 

 pursued as with the rafter vines. A rich, 

 turfy loam must be used as compost; three 

 parts of this to one of rich, half-decom- 

 posed manure, will be found excellent, 

 adding some charcoal and a little lime- 

 rubbish. The turfy loam should be 

 nearly a year old, and must be well 

 chopped with the spade, not sifted. The 

 pots must be most carefully drained 

 nearly one-fifth of their depth : any 

 stagnation whatever will surely prove 

 fatal. If the pots were unpiunged, some 

 screen, such as moss or old matting, 

 should be interposed between them and 

 the sand, or they may have double pots. 



Diseases. Shrivelling of the berries of 

 the grape in stoves appears to arise from 

 the roots of the vine not supplying a 

 sufficiency of sap, as well as from its not 

 being duly elaborated in the leaves. 

 This occurs if the roots are in a cold 

 soil, or are vegetating in an outside 

 border, the temperature of which is too 

 low compared with that of the stove. In 

 the first case, thorough draining and the 

 incorporation of calcareous rubbish, and 

 in the second case, protection to the 

 border and stem, will remove the evil. If 

 the sap be not duly elaborated, it must 

 arise, either separately or conjointly, from 

 the leaves vegetating in an ungenial atmo- 

 sphere, or from their being too reduced in 

 number. 



If the roots of the vines are found to 

 have penetrated the soil deeply, they 

 should be lifted very carefully, brickbats 

 placed beneath the roots, and these 

 trained about nine inches beneath the 



surface. If drainage of the border has 

 been neglected, let it be effected at the 

 same time. If the loss of the crop which 

 would be occasioned by the lifting of the 

 whole of the vines would be inconvenient, 

 only one or two can be so treated in suc- 

 cessive autumns. The most injurious 

 time for an unnatural disparity of tempe- 

 rature in the air and soil to occur is at 

 night ; for, as was justly observed by the 

 late Mr. Knight, an ill effect of high 

 temperature during the night is, that it 

 exhausts the excitability of the tree much 

 more rapidly than it promotes the growth 

 or accelerates the maturity of the fruit, 

 which is, in consequence, ill supplied with 

 nutriment at the period of its ripening, 

 when most nutriment is probably wanted. 

 The Muscat of Alexandria, and other late 

 grapes, are, owing to this cause, often 

 seen to wither upon the bunch in a very 

 imperfect state of maturity ; and the want 

 of richness and flavour in other forced 

 fruit is often attributable to the same 

 cause. The Frontignans are among the 

 varieties apt to shrivel under great dis- 

 parity of temperature between the roots 

 and branches. 



Somewhat alliedinits causes to shrivel- 

 ling is that unsightly imperfection where 

 the berries do not come to maturity at 

 the point of the bunches, leaving from 

 five to ten quite colourless and sour, 

 though others on the same bunch are fine 

 and large. In such case the remedies 

 are to give more heat and air, keeping the 

 border warmer than before, and to avoid 

 cold damps in the house : leave as much 

 foliage as can be exposed fully to light. 

 The leaves removed must be by little at 

 a time. In thinning, clip off a few ber- 

 ries at the lower extremity of the bunch ; 

 the rest will swell better. 



Shanking is an uloeration, or gangrene, 

 attacking the footstalks of the bunches, 

 and appears to be occasioned, like shrivel- 

 ling, by the temperature of the soil being 

 too much below that in which the branches 

 are vegetating; and, consequently, the 

 supply of sap to the grapes is much 

 diminished, and the parts -which thus fail 

 of support immediately begin to decay. 

 This is an effect always the consequence 

 of a diminished supply of sap, apparent 

 either in the leaves, flower, or fruit. The 

 disease, like every other putrefaction, does 

 not advance rapidly unless there be much 

 moisture in the atmosphere. 



The coldness of the soil causes this 



