62 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



splendid Black Hamburg vine, entirely filling a house 

 70 feet by 22 feet, which annually bears heavy crops 

 of magnificent grapes. Such vines are found growing 

 in calcareous and not over-retentive soils, and many 

 of the old vines on the Continent in an argillaceous 

 gravelly' soil, and some on the mere debris of rocks. 



While referring to these facts, it is not forgotten 

 that there are other circumstances and important 

 points in cultivation, connected more especially with 

 the early forcing of grapes under glass in this country, 

 which are of necessity adverse to the constitution and 

 longevity of the vines. But these references show 

 more forcibly what is invariably observed in practice 

 — viz., that deep, retentive, over -rich moist borders 

 are not those from which vines with good sound con- 

 stitutions and fine grapes are to be reared for a long 

 series of years. And I would therefore urge on the 

 inexperienced to avoid, on every consideration, the for- 

 mation of borders of retentive soils with large infusions 

 of manure. It is scarcely necessary now to warn them 

 against carrion-borders. These have, we believe, long 

 ago been abandoned as next to poison for vines. 



The result of rich retentive borders for the first few 

 years, as long as the fibry or organic matter is decom- 

 posing, is a strong, rank, long-jointed growth, having 

 a decided tendency to be unfruitful if the season be 

 dull and wet. The bunches most frequently produced 

 from such a growth are long in the stocks — a sort of 

 production between a tendril and a bunch — such as 

 are most frequently attacked with shanking, and at 

 last, when dished, show a disagreeable amount of 

 long weak stalks. The roots formed in such pasty 

 borders never ripen, and die back in winter to the 

 thick inactive roots. 



