Cultivation of the Grape in a Greenhouse. 421 



rubbish ; I then pruned the vines to one half of their length, 

 and during the summer I preserved every shoot I could get near 

 the bottom, sloping them according to their strength. In the 

 autumn I made fires to assist the ripening of the wood. The 

 following season I had a fair crop of very fine fruit, and excel- 

 lent young wood from the lower to the upper part of the house. 

 I shall now give the details of my general mode of manage- 

 ment. My mode of pruning differs, in some degree, from that of 

 modern practitioners. In old wood, I frequently leave spurs 

 with five or six buds, and sometimes more. I do not cut to any 

 prescribed distance from the main stem, but to a good plump 

 bud ; when they break, the weak and superfluous ones are 

 rubbed off. I, however, carefully preserve any young shoots, 

 if well placed at the lower part of the vines, whether weak 

 or not; this I do to furnish me with good shoots the follow- 

 ing season, which I lay in at full length, and am thus enabled 

 to take out a few of the old branches every year, so that I never 

 have any more than four or five years old. At the time 

 the vines begin to break, I make a gentle fire in the flue, 

 and commence syringing : I continue to do so several times 

 every fine day until the vines are in bloom ; I then discontinue 

 it, but keep the floor of the house constantly wet. When the 

 fruit is set, I give the vines one good washing to cleanse them 

 from the dead blossoms ; after this, I never wet them over 

 head, but keep the atmosphere of the house very moist, by 

 throwing down large quantities of water every clear warm day, 

 until the berries begin to change colour, when I discontinue it. 

 I also syringe the plants over head every afternoon during 

 warm weather, and close about three o'clock. At the time the 

 vines are in bloom, I give very little air and more fire heat. 

 At no period of the swelling of the fruit do I give air at the 

 lower part of the house, but the upper part I open early, to let 

 out the stagnant air, which I believe to be very essential. I 

 stop the shoots at two joints above the fruit, and never allow 

 more than two bunches to remain on each shoot, rarely more 

 than one. I commence thinninjj as soon as the fruit is set :. 

 in doing this the greatest care is necessary. I am very careful 

 not to handle the bunches, or rub them with my head ; I first 

 cut the berries from the centre of the bunch, and afterwards so 

 many from the outside as to form a handsome one; I do this 

 at two or three several times, as I find excessive thinning at 

 once does mischief. The grapes I cultivate are the Black Ham- 

 burgh, Black Frontignan, and White Sweetwater ; and I will- 

 venture to affirm few cultivators have met with the invariable- 

 success I have, both for quantity and quality of the fruit. 

 Many gentlemen and gardeners of experience have declared 

 they never before saw the like. 



E E 3 



