708 Management of Vines in the Pinery. 



I prefer raising the plants from eyes of vines to every other 

 mode of propagation, as they root better, are short jointed, 

 and bear more abundantly than by any other method I have 

 adopted or seen practised. 



In making a suitable preparation for vines, I agree in the 

 opinion with many, that a good loamy soil, of not too binding 

 a nature, with a considerable proportion of vegetable mould 

 and old tan, is very good for the purpose. 



But, with respect to the depth of soil outside of a forcing- 

 house, I am of opinion, that it is an error to prepare a border 

 3 or 4 ft. deep (as it is often done) : I would rather recommend 

 from two to three, for various reasons. The first is, I believe, 

 a well grounded general opinion, that sun heat penetrates 

 only 3 ft. into the earth ; therefore it can be of no use to cause 

 the vine, or any other tree with fibrous roots, to extend them 

 downwards out of the influence of solar heat, except where 

 accidental situation, or other causes, may render it necessary. 



Secondly, my practice is to plant shallow, that I may be 

 enabled to add to the border whatever kind of soils or manure 

 I think proper, either in summer or winter : I find this of great 

 use in strengthening the vine, and insuring permanent crops 

 of fruit. 



The practice of growing vegetables or flowers near the 

 roots I decidedly disapprove of, not only as shading, but, what 

 is of greater consequence, on account of the actual wearing 

 out of the border from the above manner of cropping it. 



To have an attentive eye to the young shoots at an early 

 period of their growth is of great importance ; and, to procure 

 round short-jointed wood, my practice is to keep a low tem- 

 perature in the night, and a very high one in the day. Vines 

 by such a mode of treatment are not excited in an unnatural 

 degree, and nature is more imitated than exactly followed, 

 which may be said to be the main principle in the art of 

 forcing. 



I have frequently in the spring months had the mercury in 

 the thermometer stand at 1 1 0° in a pinery early in the day, 

 when, with abundance of moisture, vines have grown very 

 rapidly with round short -jointed, instead of flat long-jointed, 

 shoots, caused by an extreme of fire heat in the night. The 

 observations already made I wish to be understood as ap- 

 plicable to pines as well as vines, where they are necessarily 

 grown together. 



It may also be proper to remark, that the well constructed 

 copper-roofed forcing-houses at Northwick Park are no less, 

 a credit to the taste of their noble owner, than a great recom- 

 mendation to those who erected them. I consider metallic 

 hot-houses as forming one of the greatest improvements in 



