70 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



of his giving fixed hours for opening and closing the 

 lights for the pnrijose of giving air. These directions 

 may be good for a certain house, and very unsuitable for 

 another. They may be, and probably were, intended as 

 applicable to a house with a front due south. Now, if 

 the front should be to the southeast, the house thus situ- 

 ated would be exposed to a very great heat one or two 

 hours before the time specified, and, in the months of 

 May and June, the lights in bright weather would re- 

 quire to be opened much earlier. Again, if the fronting 

 of the house inclines to the west, eight or nine o'clock 

 would be, perhaps, too early. His principle, as applied 

 to the forcing-house, is correct, but he errs in giving fixed 

 hours for ventilating tlie house, when he should have 

 substituted the range ot the mercury as a guide. In this 

 country, in May and frequent!}' in the summer months, 

 the mercury ranges in the daytime from 75° to 90° in the 

 shade: At such times, how unsuitable for the welfare of 

 the vines would be the closing of the windows of the 

 grapery at an early hour ! 



Chilture of the Vine under Glass. — By James Roberts. 

 London, 1842. 



This work is very concise, and, for the climate of Eng- 

 land,* unsurpassed in its directions for the preparation 

 of the border, etc. ; yet there are objections to it, par- 

 ticularly as concerns the cultivation in this country. It 

 is divided into six short chapters. In the preface, Mr. 



* If we can judge from the result of the practice, as detailed by the au- 

 thor, whose statements, as regards the crop of fruit and its fino Quality, are 

 corroborated by the Gardeners' Chronicle. 



