550 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



melted wax, or with warm pitch spread upon a piece of bladder, or peel off the outside 

 bark to some distance from the place ; and then press into the pores of the wood a 

 composition of pounded chalk and tar, mixed to the consistence of putty." (Abercrombie.) 

 3000. Nicol's remedy. Vines " will bleed in autumn, as well as in spring, though not so copiously at the 

 former season. The best preventative is timeous or early pruning in spring ; and not pruning till the 

 wood is thoroughly ripe in autumn. Plants that have been pruned too late in the spring, and forced too 

 soon afterwards (a great mistake), will bleed, and the best remedy I know of is searing the end of the 

 shoots by a hot poker, or rod of iron, in order to dry it, and then to apply hot wax." 



! 3001. Switzcr, to stop bleeding, opens a hole at the roots with a spade, and pours in a few pailfuls of cold 

 water, which he says will have a sure and immediate effect. As this must be by chilling the roots and 

 weakening the vital functions, it seems questionable whether the remedy may not be worse than the 



3002. Speechly's remedy for bleeding is to peel off or divest that part of the branch adjoining the wound of 

 all the outside bark ; then with a sponge dry up the moisture, and immediately wrapt round the wounded 

 part a piece of an ox's bladder, spread over with tar, or pitch made warm, in the manner of a plaster. 

 Then tie the whole securely with a strong thread, well rubbed with bees' wax. These must remain for 

 three weeks or a month. (TV. on the Vine, 145.) 



3003. Knight's remedy consists of four parts of scraped cheese to be added to one part of calcined oyster- 

 shells, or other pure calcareous earth, and this composition pressed strongly into the pores of the wood. 

 " This done," he says, " the sap will instantly cease to flow." (Hort. Trans, vol. i.) When the vine is 

 in full leaf, it is not liable to bleed when cut ; therefore the largest branches may be cut off during the 

 growing season with perfect safety. 



3004. Stirring the soil, and culture of the borders. " The borders," Abercrombie 

 observes, " should be kept at all times clear from weeds. In winter and spring, the 

 surface of an open border should be turned with a three-pronged fork, not digging deep 

 so as to injure the roots. The design is merely to revive the surface. When it is ne- 

 cessary to recruit the soil, dig the exhausted part carefully up, and work in such a com- 

 post as has been described under Soil, or similar. The dung out of a cow-house, per- 

 fectly rotted, is a fine manure for the vine." He adds, " From the time the buds rise 

 till the fruit is set, manure the border once in ten days, with the drainings of the dung- 

 hill, poured over the roots of the plants." 



3005. M'Phail recommends digging in rotten dung, and watering with dung-water from the melon-beds, 

 or with that which has run from a dunghill in a state of fermentation. Forking over, and working a little 

 short dung or compost, if thought necessary, is Nicol's preparation for the winter. A week or two pre- 

 viously to commencing to force, say about the middle of January (forcing to begin the first of February), 

 he directs the border to be pointed or forked over carefully ; and let it be watered all over with the 

 drainings of the dunghill ; which repeat at the end of four or five days, and also again at a light interval ; 

 giving as much as will sink down to the deepest-placed roots and fibres. The border on the outside should 

 also be covered, or rather should already have been covered, to a good thickness, with stable-yard dung ; 

 not, however, mere litter, but good fresh dung, the juices of which may be washed down to the benefit 

 of the roots. The intention of this covering is to answer as a manure ; and also to keep severe frost 

 from the roots, from the time the sap is put in motion, till the spring be so far advanced as that the plants 

 shall sustain no injury. Previous to laying on the dung, the border should be pointed or forked over, 

 that the juices may descend the more readily to the roots, and not be washed off. 



3006. Speechly covered the vine-border in front of his hot-house with gravel ; the best gardeners do not 

 crop them at all, or only with the most temporary crops of vegetables. 



3007. Time of beginning to force. " The growing season of our climate," Aber- 

 crombie remarks, " does not last long enough to bring out, swell to full size, and per- 

 fectly ripen, the fruit and summer shoots of the vine. Hence, when the artificial ex- 

 citement, applied to this plant, begins just before the natural spring, and is continued 

 till the leaves fall, the plant is beneficially assisted under a deficient climate rather than 

 forced. The best time to begin to force is the first of March, if the object be simply to 

 obtain grapes in perfection moderately early. In proportion as the start is accelerated 

 before this, the habits of a deciduous plant, and the adverse state of the weather, leave a 

 greater number of obstacles and discouraging contingencies to intercept final success. 

 Managers, however, who work a number of houses, and who have to provide, as well as 

 they can, against demands for grapes in early succession, begin to force about the 21st 

 of December, and, successively, in other houses, the 1st of January, 1st of February, 

 and so on. Attempts are even made, by bold speculators, to lay forward for a crop in 

 March, by beginning to force in August, and getting the fruit set before November : 

 but such labor and expense is often lost. The period of ripening is not early in pro- 

 portion to the time of beginning : when the course of forcing coincides nearly with the 

 natural growing season, ripe grapes may be cut in five months or less ; when short days 

 compose a third part of the course, in about six months ; when the course includes full 

 half the winter, it will last nearly seven months." 



3008. M'Phail, in case grapes be not wanted very early, considers the month of February the best time 

 to begin to force. On the subject of very early forcing, this author remarks : " On the supposition that 

 the earliest crop of grapes was over by the end of June, and the glasses laid aside, or left open on the 

 house day and night, you may, if it is desired to try to have grapes early in the spring, prune your vines 

 in August, and put your house in order; and if it is necessary to dig in manure about the roots and stems 

 of the vines, let it be done. If your border be dry, give it a good watering ; and if with dung-water, at 

 this time, it will help to enrich it. When this is done, draw on your glasses, and keep the air in the 

 house to a moderate degree of heat, and your vines will afterwards shoot out, and if they are in a fit 

 state for bearing, they will show fruit. If you have not plenty of vines in other houses to succeed these, 

 it would not be advisable to begin to force at this season of the year, for there are several things that 

 might reasonably be urged against the probability of the success of this attempt to ripen grapes early in 

 the spring ; but it may succeed, and therefore, it is worth giving it a trial. By custom, the vines can 

 be brought, as it were naturally, to shoot forth in the autumn, and their fruit may be set before the 

 shortest days ; the greatest art will then, after that, be to preserve them through the dead of winter in 



