CULTIVATION OF FRUIT 455 



General Remarks. As a rule, February is the best month for 

 pruning open-air Vines, and the main growths should be pruned back 

 into the well-ripened wood. When the Vines commence to grow, the 

 young fruit-bearing shoots on each side of the rods must be thinned out, 

 and evenly disposed 18 inches apart. If left thicker, sun and air 

 will be excluded, and both foliage and fruit will be small and inferior. 

 The fruiting laterals must be pinched at two leaves from the bunch, re- 

 pinched when another leaf is made, and not allowed to make a further 

 growth. 



When the berries are set, and are as large as No. 3 shot, they 

 should be thinned with Grape scissors. Remove most of the inside 

 berries, as they seldom colour properly, and thin out the rest, so that 

 when the ripe bunch is cut and laid on a dish it will not lose its shape. 

 When the Grapes are swelling, well water the roots once a week with 

 liquid manure, the colour of pale ale, or sprinkle a little artificial manure 

 on the surface and water it in. The foliage should also be freely 

 syringed occasionally on fine evenings to ward off red spider. Mulch 

 the border in June with short manure to keep it moist. Wasps and 

 flies often attack open-air Grapes when ripening, and the best way to 

 protect them is to envelop the bunches in muslin bags. Wasps may 

 also be trapped by half filling soda-water bottles with sugar and beer, 

 and hanging them on the Vines. Each year when the Vines are pruned, 

 a little of the old soil should be removed from the border, and replaced 

 with fresh sweet compost. 



The best Grapes for open-air culture are Reine Olga, Cambridge 

 Botanic Gardens, a very sweet purple Grape; Miller's Burgundy, 

 Old White Sweet Water, Royal Muscadine, and Chasselas Vibert, 

 a delicious Grape. The Vine, apart from its fruits, is valuable for 

 its picturesque growth. Many a sunny corner may be well clothed with 

 its beautiful foliage and in the autumn sweet fruit clusters, and Vines 

 are as appropriate as any wall plant for the old-world English homes 

 now built in many parts. A cottage or English home of the past was 

 seldom without its clustering Vine. 



The Strawberry. This is one of the most delicious of hardy 

 fruits, and gives its precious harvest in June and July. The Strawberry 

 should be cultivated by those with merely a small plot of ground; it 

 needs neither pruning nor training and quickly fruits. This cannot 

 be written of Apple, Pear, Plum, &c., that never reach full fruit- 

 bearing condition until several years have elapsed. 



Soil and Situation. In ordinary garden soil the Strawberry suc- 

 ceeds ; it delights, however, in a deep loam, well enriched with manure. 

 As in the case of most other fruit-bearing plants, it does not thrive so 

 well upon light, gravelly land. The ground upon which it is intended 

 to make a plantation of Strawberries should, towards the end of July, 

 be dug over deeply, at the same time placing a layer of manure in 

 the bottom of each trench as the work proceeds. This will prove 

 especially valuable to the roots if the soil be of a light nature. Straw- 

 berries grow well in almost any position in the garden ; they may be 



