THE CULTURE OF THE GEAPE. 97 



make due allowance for difference of climate, if it is in- 

 tended to follow out his plan entirely. For instance, he 

 states that it has formerly been the practice to put out 

 the fires in June in the grapery, even if the grapes were 

 not ripe, and atti-ibutes to this cause some of the evils to 

 which this fruit is subject under glass, and disapproves 

 of this management, and goes on to say that the fires 

 must be kept up until the fruit is ripe. It would be ab- 

 surd, in this climate, to follow, literally, this advice ; 

 sometimes in May, and frequently in June, we have very 

 warm weather, the mercury rising to 80°, and sometimes 

 to 90° in the open air ; at these times, the heat of the 

 grapery cannot be kept under 100° while the sun is 

 shining upon the house, and any heat in the flue, or 

 boiler and pipes, would increase the difficulty. The fact 

 is, such advice will not do ; jon must regulate the heat 

 by the thermometer, and, in warm weather, at this sea- 

 son of the year, make, or omit to make, the fires, as the 

 temperature of the external air may be. 



Mr. Roberts says, " that shanking and shrivelling have 

 been discarded by his plan of keeping the roots of the 

 vine in a somewhat corresponding temperature with that 

 to which the top is exposed." It has occurred to me, 

 that the great excitement given to the roots of the vine, 

 by the manure heaped upon them, and consequent vigor 

 of the vine, may have been the cause of the fruit not 

 shanking or shrivelling. 



Mr. Eoberts's idea may be the correct one, and yet 

 shanking and shrivelling be avoided without using this 

 method. If it is true, as Mr. R. states, that this diffi- 

 culty is caused by too low a temperatui*e at -the roots of 



