74 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



alone is a sure indication that all is right. When such 

 a vine is shaken out in spring to be planted, it is found 

 comparatively rootless, and in every way inferior. 



Take the same young vine and shift it into a well 

 and carefully drained pot not larger than 8 inches, in a 

 compost composed of a good, sound, rather light loam, 

 having a fourth part of thoroughly-decomposed manure, 

 and a sprinkling of bone-meal and sand mixed with it. 

 Pot firmly, and stand it on the surface of the plunging 

 material, or even on a shelf or the floor of 'a light house, 

 and grow it the whole time without bottom-heat, and 

 the result is a potful of beautifully weU-ripened fibrous 

 roots, that keep fresh through the winter in such quantity 

 that when they are shaken out of the soil for planting 

 in spring, the pot appears to have been full of roots 

 and nothing else. There is no comparison between 

 these two descriptions of vines for planting. All is in 

 favour of the latter, of course. Avoid, therefore, in 

 growing young vines, badly-drained pots, a close reten- 

 tive soil, and bottom-heat after they are well rooted. 



All summer they should be grown on at an average 

 temperature of 70° at night, with from 10° to 20° more 

 by sun-heat in the afternoon for a while when shut up. 

 No check for lack of water should ever be risked while 

 in a growing state ; for besides other evils, they will, if 

 not well supplied with water both at the root and in 

 the atmosphere, be very subject to the ravages of red- 

 spider. Of light, the grand consolidating and ripening 

 agent, they should have as much as possible. All vines 

 grown in the shade of other vines, or anything else, 

 should be avoided. The lateral growths should be kept 

 regularly stopped to one bud, and the vines stopped at 

 from 5 to 6 feet. They are often allowed to grow longer, 



