554 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



perfect accommodation are not weighty enough to forbid the dedication of any spare room 

 to the vine, yet they are sufficient to confer very great credit on the manager who obtains 

 a good crop of fine-flavored grapes under them." (Pr. G. 657.) 



3035. Speechly considers, that the vine and pine may be advantageously grown together ; but subse- 

 quent experience having led to the culture of pines in pits, most gardeners, and among these Nicol, prefer 

 growing them separately. 



3036. M'Phail, without giving a decided approbation of their union, gives the following directions on 

 the subject, which are to be taken in connection with his opinion as given above, on the impropriety of 

 withdrawing the wood to rest it in the open air. To manage the grape in a hot-house appropriated for 

 growing the pine-apple, and for ripening its fruit, treat them in the following manner : in the month of 

 November or December, cut down all the old wood to about the height of the pit, leaving only two young 

 shoots, the strongest that can be got, the strongest one to shoot from the buds and bear the fruit, the other 

 to be cut short and to grow long shoots to bear the fruit the succeeding year. This is to be done succes- 

 sively year after year, leaving the old stem of the vine to grow, as the older the plant is the better. After 

 the vines are pruned, tie them up nearly close to the glass, with matting, to iron rods or laths fixetl to the 

 rafters of the house. As soon as they begin to swell in their buds and show themselves ready to break, let 

 them down about a foot from the glass, so that they may receive the benefit of the warm air round about 

 them, and not be liable to be affected by the frosts. If the buds burst strong and bushy, it is a good sign 

 that they will show fruit; but if weak, the contrary; and, if they miss showing fruit on the fourth or 

 fifth joint, they will show none at all ; and in that case the young shoot that does not show fruit should be 

 cut off, as it would only take the nourishment from the others which have shown fruit. Do not let more 

 than one or two bunches grow on one bud, for if too many are left on the plant, they will not swell well. 

 If the vines be planted in the inside of the house, care should be taken to keep them sufficiently watered ; 

 and in dry weather, in the spring and summer, the border on the outside of the house, in which the roots of 

 the vines run, should get plentiful waterings. In order to keep the leaves and fruit clean, let the plants 

 be washed occasionally with clean water, thrown on them by a tin squirt or engine, but take care that the 

 decaying paint on the rafters be not washed down on the leaves and fruit, which would stain and hurt 

 them. Should there be any danger of that, it will answer the purpose fully as well by filling the house full 

 of steam now and then, by sprinkling water on the flues when they are warm. 



3037. Growing grapes in green-houses and other houses. Vines are grown under the rafters in green- 

 houses, conservatories, and in most kinds of forcing and other hot-houses ; but, as the gardener who un- 

 derstands their culture in the vinery and pine-stove, can be at no loss in any case of that sort, we do not 

 consider it necessary to introduce here any thing farther on the subject. The excellence of the fruit, and the 

 grateful nature of the plant, than which none is more certain of rewarding the gardener's care by abund- 

 ant crops, will, we trust, justify our having brought together the practice of so many cultivators. 



3038. Forcing vines hy dung-heat. Justice, Lavrrence, and Switzer state instances of 

 this being done on wooden walls in their time. Fletcher, a market-gardener near Edin- 

 burgh, has practised it with great success in a glass case, keeping constantly, till the fruit 

 is about to ripen, a heap of dung, or dung and weeds, in a state of fermentation in the 

 area of the house. But the most systematic and extensive forcing of this kind is that 

 which has for fifteen years been practised by J. French, Esq. a gentleman farmer of East 

 Hornden, in Essex, and which has been thus described by a late intelligent fellow of the 

 Horticultural Society. 



3039. FrencKs mode of forcing vines hy dung-heat. About the beginning of March, French commences 

 his forcing, by introducing a quantity of new long dung, taken from under the cow-cribs in his straw -yard ; 

 being principally, if not entirely, cow-dung, which is laid upon the floor of 



his house {fig. 461.), extending entirely from end to end, and in width 

 about six or seven feet, leaving only a path-way between it and the back 

 wall of the house. The dung being all new at the beginning, a profuse 

 steam arises with the first heat, which, in this stage of the process, is found 

 to be beneficial in destroying the ova of insects, as well as transfusing a 

 wholesome moisture over the yet leafless branches ; but which would prove 

 injurious, if permitted to rise in so great a quantity when the leaves have 

 pushed forth. In a few days the violence of the steam abates as the 

 buds open, and in the course of a fortnight the heat begins to diminish ; it 

 then becomes necessary to carry in a small addition of fresh dung, laying it 

 in the bottom, and covering it over with the old dung fresh forked up ; this 

 produces a renovated heat and a moderate exhalation of moist vapor. In 

 this manner the heat is kept up throughout the season, the fresh supply of 

 dung being constantly laid at the bottom in order to smother the steam, or rather to moderate the quantity 

 of exhalation ; for it must always be remembered, that French attaches great virtue to the supply of a rea- 

 sonable portion of the vapor. The quantity of nev>?dung to be introduced at each turning, must be regu- 

 lated by the greater or smaller degree of heat that is found in the house, as the season or other circum- 

 stances appear to require it. The temperature kept up is pretty regular, being from 65 to 70 degrees. 

 French contends, that the moist vapor which is transfused through the house is essentially beneficial, not 

 only because it discourages the existence of insects, and destroys their ova, but it likewise facilitates the 

 setting and swelling of the fruit. I ought to observe, that I ata not offering any opinion of my own in the 

 present statement, but merely recording, as faithfully as possible, the remarks made to me by a person of 

 ingenuity and observation, whose extraordinary success is, in my mind, the best test that can be given of 

 the merits of his practice. {Anderson, in Hort. Trans, vol. ii.) 



3040. Mearns " approves greatly of applying the steam and heat of dung to the forcing of grapes, and 

 uses it in the earliest part of forcing with great advantage, forming a large ridge of it in the back part of 

 his vinery, and introducing the additions of recent litter always under the old dung." {Hort. Trans iv. 

 p. 256.) 



3041. Advantages of using dung-heat. The practice of applying the heat of horse-dung, and of other fer- 

 menting substances, to the forcing of vines and the growing of pines and other plants, usually excited or 

 preserved by means of fire -heat, is becoming very general, and is attended with this advantage, that the 

 ammoniacal and carbonic gas, which is disengaged during the decomposition of the dung, is highly noxious 

 to insects, while to vines before the buds protrude themselves, and to pine-plants at most seasons, it is 

 found not at aU injurious. These things known, every farmer might have an excellent vinery attached to 

 his straw-yard, or placed over, or near to his dung-pit, at very little expense, and with very little con- 

 trivance m ordinary cases. A few apertures along the upper part of the house being kept at all times 

 open, there could hardly occur any injurious accumulation of steam, and the same openings would render 

 daily attention in giving air unnecessary ; for there is abundant experience to prove that a vinery in 

 which the apertures for admitting air at bottom and top are opened in spring, may be left with them in 

 that state night and day till autumn, without the smallest injury. All that the farmer would have to do. 



