INTRODUCTION. ix 



tiful supp.y of .fruit; if you do so, you must be sadly 

 disappointed. 



Probably there is no plant so sure of yielding an an- 

 nual crop as the grape, under right management; but 

 this is absolutely necessary, to insure success. 



The attempt has been made to give plain rules, whicb 

 may be easily understood, and the practical operation of 

 which can be carried out with as little labor as the 

 proper cultivation of the grape, under glass, will permit. 



The following directions are intended for those who 

 may desire to cultivate this fruit, for their own pleasure 

 or convenience, and do not wish to incur the expense of 

 a regularly educated gardener, and who have felt the 

 want of a concise and simple explanation of the pro- 

 cess, and the rules by which these operations of forcing 

 and of growing gi'apes, under glass structures, can be 

 carried out. 



The treatment recommended is such as has been found 



Mr. A. Forsyth, in a diary of the culture of the grape in a forcing-house, 

 at Bast Barnet, in Herts, published in Loudon's Magazine, page 548, vol. 

 10th, makes these remarks relative to the weather; " December the 15th, 

 ■weather favorable ; the nights often 50° or 52° ; seldom under 40°. We 

 have had only four frosts ; the most intense, as low as 26°." A diary of 

 tjie forcing-house kept by myself, on the fifteen first days of December, lias 

 five or six days when the cold is said to be very severe, below zero or 

 about it ; and several days, when it was mild by day, the mercury fell to 

 16° and 18° at night. In any degree of cold at night, if the heating ar- 

 rangements are suitable, the temperature, with proper care, can be easily 

 regulated. That there is a vast difference in the attention required when 

 the mercury ranges from 20° to 48° above zero, or when it is as lov/ as 6° 

 or 10° below, any one having had experience in such matters will readily 

 admit. 



