220 



HORTICULTURE. 



Fruit 

 Garden. 



Vine. 



Bleeding. 



yields two or three bunches of grapes, which grow from 

 the new shoots of the current year, the fruit-buds be- 

 ing always opposite to the wood buds. Sometimes 

 more eyes are left, and more fruit is naturally produced ; 

 but it is not only inferior in size but in flavour. The 

 shoots are laid in about eighteen inches asunder on the 

 wall, to give room to the side shoots. Miller, Forsyth, 

 and Speechly, unite in recommending for the time of 

 winter pruning, the end of October, when the fruit is 

 all gathered. Hitt proposes to delay it till the end of 

 January, or beginning of February, affirming that vines 

 cut in October make weaker shoots than those pruned 

 after mid-winter. The shoots which were lately bear- 

 ers are cut back to some good lateral shoot, and a few 

 extended naked old branches are entirely removed, or 

 cut back to some promising young shoots. In either 

 case, the cut is made about an inch above the bud ; 

 and sloped backwards from it, so as to convey away 

 the juice which may exude. 



If the wounds made in the autumn or winter pruning 

 have not fully healed over, vines are apt to bleed when 

 vegetation commences. Various remedies have been 

 proposed. Hitt recommends, that after wiping the 

 part dry, it should be basted with soot or with unslaked 

 lime. Nicol is for searing the bleeding point, and then 

 smearing it over with hot wax. Mr Knight, from his 

 own experience, recommends a composition of four 

 parts scraped cheese and one part calcined oyster-shells, 

 or lime, to be pressed strongly into the pores of the 

 wood ; the sap almost immediately ceases to flow ; and 

 if this composition be properly applied, even a large 

 branch may be taken off ai any season without detri- 

 ment from bleeding. 



On the open wall or trellis, grapes are very subject 

 to the attacks of wasps. Some of the finest bunches 

 may be saved by surrounding them with bags of crape 

 or gauze. It may be mentioned, that bunches which 

 have arrived at maturity only in the end of October, 

 may be gathered by cutting off the shoots on which 

 they grow : if these be suspended in a cool apartment, 

 the fruit will keep for a month in a tolerably good 

 state. 



138. Early in the 18th century a kind of flued walls 

 were first used for the forwarding, or rather for the 

 thorough ripening of grapes, at Belvoir Castle in Rut- 

 landshire, where Hitt, the author of the Treatise on 

 Fruit-trees, was an apprentice : mats were at the same 

 time thrown over the vines at night, to save them 

 from the chilling dews and hoar-frosts that occur in 

 April and May. Since that time flued walls, with 

 moveable glass frames, have been much used; the 

 *ame vines being brought into bearing every second or 

 third year, and, in the intermediate time, prevented from 

 exhausting themselves, by the removal of the flower- 

 stalks as they appear. Glazed houses for the culture of 

 grapes have also been formed, under the name of Vine- 

 ries, to be afterwards described. Speechly remarks, 

 that good crops of grapes may be obtained from vines 

 trained against walls not more than six feet high, by 

 making use of melon-frame glasses, a temporary nar- 

 row roof being made to receive the glasses. A slight de- 

 gree of fire heat, he adds, would be of great advantage ; 

 and in no situation, we may remark, would can-flues, such 

 as are described in the first volume of Scottish Horti- 

 cultural Memoirs, be more suitable, these being easily 

 removed, and as easily restored when wanted again. 



In a very few places in England, vines are planted 

 in the vineyard form, in ranges, about twelve feet asun- 

 der, the shoots being trained in a horizontal direction, 



to a series of stakes, three or four feet high, placed K'uit 

 along the ranges. Garden. 



139. We must not omit to mention, that one sort of "T"" 

 vine may be grafted on another, in the ordinary way : 



the operation, however, must be performed with great 

 care and exactness. In this way, if a wall have been 

 planted with kinds injudiciously selected, they may, by 

 grafting, be very speedily changed, preserving all the 

 advantages of having strong well-rooted plants. In a 

 small vinery or vine-frame, various kinds of grapes mav 

 thus be inserted on one stock. Speechly mentions .< 

 Syrian vine which in this way produced sixteen difi'<-- 

 rent sorts of grapes. The principal advantage of graft- 

 ing, however, is looked for in the modifying and im- 

 proving of the various kinds ; the vreak and tender bo- 

 ing grafted on such as are robust and vigorous ; for ex- 

 ample, the black frontignac, placed on the Syrian, 

 is said to produce well-shaped large bunches, with 

 berries nearly the size of those of the Black Hamburgh. 

 This Syrian vine is excellent for stocks ; and by some 

 horticulturists, seedling stocks of it, grafted with other 

 kinds, are accounted preferable to cuttings or layers of 

 those kinds themselves. Vine-grafts are gathered at 

 the time of the winter pruning, from bearing branches ; 

 and they are kept sunk in light earth till the proper 

 grafting season, which is about three weeks before the 

 stock break into bud. Those in a hot-house must of 

 course be grafted several weeks before those out of doors. 

 The finer sorts are generally grafted by approach. 



Kg. 



140. The Fig-tree is the Ficus Carica of Linne, Po- Fig, 

 lygamia Dicecia ; belonging to the Urticce of Jussieu ; 



it is the Figuier of the French. It is considered as a 

 native of Asia, but it has been cultivated for time im- 

 memorial in the south of Europe. It was first intro- 

 duced into this country in the 16th century. Two very 

 large trees still remaining in the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury's garden at Lambeth, are reported to have been 

 the first planted in England, and to have been brought 

 hither by Cardinal Pole. They are at any rate of great 

 age. They are of the white Marseilles kind, and still 

 continue to produce fruit. 



141. Miller introduced several new varieties of the 

 fig from Venice : he enumerates 14 sorts as deserving 

 of cultivation in this country ; but of these little more 

 than one-half are now in repute. Those most esteem- 

 ed are the following : 



Brown Ischia. 

 Black Ischia. 

 Black Genoa. 

 White Genoa. 

 Small early white. 



Malta fig. 

 Murrey-fig. 

 Common blue. 

 Brunswick. 

 Brown Italian. 

 Black Italian. 



The Broivn Ischia is a very large globular fruit, of a 

 chestnut colour on the outside, and purple within ; pulp 

 sweet and of good flavour. It ripens by the middle of 

 August, and the tree seldom fails to afford a crop. 



The Black Ischia, also called Blue Ischia, is a very 

 good sort. The fruit is short, of middling size, a little 

 Hatted at the crown ; when fully ripe, the skin is dark 

 purple or almost black, and the inside of a deep red : 

 the pulp very high flavoured. The tree is a good bear- 

 er, and the fruit is ready early in September. 



The Black Genoa is a long-shaped fruit ; the skin of 

 a dark purple, almost black, with a purplish bloom over 



