346 General Notices. 



a small dish on the 10th of May from them. This is a very prolific and 

 fine-flavored pea. On the same day, and on the same border, another 

 portion of the Warwicli was sown. These, although having exactly the 

 same treatment as the two above sowings, Avith regard to banks, lioeings, 

 earthing, sheltering, sticking and watering, sloppmg or topping, &c., no 

 favor being shown either to one or the other, were in bloom on the 13th 

 of April, and gathered on the 28th of May. Although thus fairly treated, 

 my old favorite pea was fourteen days behind the Albert. About thirteen 

 years ago, I compared the Warwick, on a long south border, with severai 

 others ; of these early peas, the Warwick proving itself then superior to 

 the others, retained my favor ever since. Next year, should the Albert 

 prove the same as it has done this year, I can only call the Warwick a 

 pea for a second crop. Last year I sowed the two above peas on the 

 same day, under the same preparation and management ; the winter, how- 

 ever, was so mild that they got too " gay," and were very much cut and 

 crippled in the spring, but enough was left to fully prove the superior 

 earliness of the Albert over the Warwick that time. {Gard. Chron. 1844, 

 p. 476.) 



Grape Vines. — Last season I renewed the vines in one of my vineries, 

 and in doing this I adopted a plan M'hich I have not seen practised else- 

 where. A hole was made in the parapet wall under each sash, and a rod 

 of the previous season's growth was passed out at one hole and in at an- 

 other. The border was prepared as folio ivs: — About a foot of the surface 

 of the old border was removed, a small quantity of ashes was tlirown in 

 for drainage, and the bottom was then flagged with stones to the width of 

 two feet from the wall ; at the outside of this, a barrier of flags was put 

 np, and the space between this and the wall was divided into as many 

 compartments as there were plants (or layers) in the house ; these com- 

 partments were then filled in to the depth of 18 inches with prepared soil, 

 the layers being covered about 8 inches; the border was then mulched 

 over, and this finished the operation for the first two years. The two feet 

 of soil I consider sufficient for the first two years ; on the third, {i. e. next 

 season,) I shall remove the barrier, and, with a fork, take off part of the 

 soil, to enable me to prune, examine, and arrange the roots, as may ap- 

 pear necessary ; having done this, I shall place the barrier about a foot 

 and a half further out, and fill the space up with fresh soil, in the same 

 way as at first ; this operation I intend to repeat annually. The advan- 

 tages are — 1st. I will not lose the use of the old vines until the young 

 ones are quite ready to take their place; 2d. I divide the labor of making 

 the border, which is usually done in one year, over a number of 3'ears; 

 3d. I have a perfect command of the roots of my vines, and can manage 

 them with as much regularity as I can do the branches ; 4th. Should it 

 become necesrary from any cause to remove an old vine, or introduce a 

 new one, it can be done without in the slightest degree interfering with 

 its neighbor ; and ."ith. They have a fresh supply of soil to produce every 

 crop, and slinuld I wish to feed with liquid manure, I know exactly where 

 to apply it effectually. This system might also be applied with advan- 

 tage to wall trees. It might be improved upon, in the case of foruiing a 

 new house for early forcing, by leaving tlie compartments larger, and 

 making a trench for fermenting materials, with pigeon-holed brick work 

 between the compartments, which would enable a temperature to be kept 

 at the roots in some degree corresponding to that in the inside of the 



