General Notices. 233 



the bud is carefully pinched out ; sometimes this operation required to he re- 

 peated. About the beginning of October they are placed on shelves, close 

 to the glass, in a light greenhouse or vinery, and by giving a little heat, as 

 the season advances, they generally produce blooms until Christmas. 

 These, it will be observed, are retarded plants, not forced ; and to succeed 

 them, are in readiness five or six hundred plants, in sLx-inch pots, prop;ired 

 as follows : — ■Plants that had been forced the preceding winter, are turned 

 out of their pots about the middle of April, and immediately layered. The 

 layers are generally well rooted by the beginning or middle of August, 

 when they are at once put into their flowering pots, and when established, 

 liberally supplied with water. Two hundred plants, so treated, were put 

 into the forcing-house, at the same time as the Provence roses, (15th No- 

 vember,) and blooms will be fit to cut in a day or two, or about the first of 

 February. I intended to notice a few more winter flowering plants, but 

 must defer doing so for the present. — Hawthorn. [A very good and prac- 

 tically-useful paper. We should like much to hear about the other things 

 alluded to.]— (M, p. 84, 1850.) 



PoT-cuLTURE OF ViNEs. — Notwithstanding the many useful articles, from 

 time to time, (on the pot-culture of the vine,) which have appeared in the 

 Journal, I have to trouble you by asking a few questions, trusting you will^ 

 from your own practical experience, give your ideas through the JournaL 

 The vines I mean to force this year, are two years from the eye. I grew 

 them last year in pots, known by the name of No. 1, 15 by 16 inches. The 

 compost and manner of potting, were as follows : — The compost was equal 

 parts top-spit from an old pasture, (rather light,) and vegetable mould, with 

 an admixture of broken bricks, four inches of which were placed as dram- 

 age at the bottom, with one inch o? raw broken bones on the top, over which 

 was placed a thin circular-cut turf. The mould and the plant were then in- 

 serted, after shaking and loosening the roots, the latter being carefully 

 spread. I may mention here, that I used every precaution in placing the 

 drainage, to prevent the roots getting through. The plants were trained to 

 one rod, which I allowed to grow to about seven feet, and then stopped 

 them ; and they are fine, firm, short-jointed rods. But I found, on turning 

 tliem out for the winter, they were all more or less rooted through the pots 

 in the mould in which they were plunged. I shall now describe tlie pit, 

 they were and are to be grown in. It is 16 feet by 17, with span roof, at an 

 angle of 45 degrees, heated by water, in tanks 2i feet wide on each side, 

 and 2 feet passage in the centre. The tanks are covered witli slate Jlags 

 an inch thick, on which 6 inches of rubble stones are laid, covered by tliin- 

 cut turf, on which I used to grow melons. The vines will be trained up the 

 rafters. First query is. What length of shoot should I leave, and how many 

 buds or eyes should be left? Should I shift the plants into new compost? 

 Is the compost a right sort ? Or, would it be better to have two troughs of 

 wood, made tlie Avhole lengtli of the house, wide enough to hold tlie pots, 

 and filled with compost, and give a fresh top-dressing, allowing the roots to 

 get through into the troughs at will ? Would it be better, that the part of" 

 the tank unoccupied by the troughs, should be stripped of tlie turf, and the 

 VOL. XVI. NO. V. 30 



