FRUIT UNDER GLASS. 139 
The late Wm. Thomson, senior, of Dalkeith Gardens and 
Clovenfords, introduced a method of raising vines from eyes, 
which is probably a good deal practised now, and my own expe- 
rience of it leads me to say it is the best method that can be 
adopted for the purpose of raising vines. The method is :— 
Take some fresh turf-sods cut in squares in the usual manner, 
lay them grass-side downwards on a bed in which there is 
bottom-heat, then take a number of vine-eyes and insert them 
all over the surface of the sods at equal distances of six inches 
square. The time for doing this is the usual time, January or 
early February. When the eyes have made growth six to nine 
inches in length, each eye is cut all round, leaving a six-inch 
square of turf to each. These are now shifted into another bed 
and placed twelve inches apart, where they make growth three 
feet long. They are then cut all round again. This cutting of 
the roots twice causes a lot of small fibrous roots to grow, and 
the vines are now ready to plant out in the vinery. By the time 
the vines have grown to be three feet long it will be the month 
of May, and I have always found about the middle of May is the 
best time to plant a vinery with young growing vines, The 
process of planting in this case is of the simplest and easiest 6 
Take a spade or wooden shovel, get it under the sod in which 
your vine is growing, lift and carry to the new border, lay it on 
the surface, cover with a little fresh fine-chopped sods mixed _ 
with bone-meal and vine-manure, and over all place a mulch of 
fresh horse-droppings, give a watering, and the planting is 
finished. So far I advocate as the ‘best method the raising of 
your own vines from eyes and the planting of them out the same 
early summer in their permanent quarters. 
We know, however, that nurserymen all over the country grow 
and send out yearly immense quantities of young vines grown in 
pots, and so a large quantity of one-year-old vines must be 
planted yearly. I must refer to the treatment of these also. 
About fourteen months ago I had occasion to examine the 
roots of young vines, planted twelve months previously, and to 
my astonishment I found that in planting they had simply been 
taken out of the pots and planted with the whole ball. Inquiring 
who did the work, I was told the head-gardener did it himself. 
I did not think that any man worthy of the name of a pro- 
