508 



THE GRAPE. 



The above mode of training is very easily understood, but we may 

 add here, for the benefit of the novice : 1st, that vines, in order that 

 they may bear regularly and well, should always be kept within small 

 bounds ; 2d, that they should always be trained to a wall, building, or 

 upright trellis y * and 3d, that the leaves should never be pulled off to 

 promote the ripening of the fruit. The ends of the bearing shoots may 

 be stopped (pinched off) when the fruit is nearly half grown, and this 

 is usually all the summer pruning that, under our bright sun, the grape- 

 vine properly treated requires. 



Epllowing out this hint, that here the vine only bears well when it 

 is young, or composed mainly of young wood, an intelligent cultivator 

 near us secures every year abundant crops of the Chasselas by a system 

 of renewal by layers. Every year, from his bearing vines, he lays down 

 two or more long and clean shoots of the previous year's growth. These 

 root freely, are allowed to make another season's growth, and then are 

 made to take the place of the old plants, which are taken out ; and by 

 this continual system of providing young plants by layers he always 

 succeeds in obtaining from the same piece of ground fair and excellent 

 grapes. 



Culture under Glass without Artificial Heat. The great 

 superiority of this fruit when raised under glass, renders a vinery an 

 indispensable feature in every extensive garden. Even without fire- 

 heat grapes may, under our bright sun, be grown admirably ; the sud- 

 den changes of the weather being guarded against, and the warmth and 

 uniformity of the atmosphere surrounding the vines being secured. 

 Cheap structures of this kind are now very common, and even the 

 Muscat of Alexandria, and other sorts which are usually thought to 

 require fire-heat, ripen regularly and well with moderate attention. 



A vinery of this kind may be erected so as to cost very little, nearly 

 after the following manner : Its length may be thirty feet ; its width 

 sixteen feet ; height at the front two feet ; at the back twelve feet. 

 This part of the structure may all be built of wood, taking for the 

 frame cedar or locust posts, setting them three and a half feet in the 

 ground, the portion rising above the ground being squared to four or 

 five inches. On these posts (which are placed six feet apart) nail, on 

 both sides, matched and grooved planks, one and a quarter inches thick. 

 The space between these planks not occupied by the post, fill in with dry 

 tan, which should be well rammed down. The rafters should be fixed, 

 and from three to four feet apart. The sashes forming the roof (which 

 are all the glass that will be necessary) should be stationary, ventilation 

 being given by small windows at the top of the back wall, fitted with 

 hinges, to be opened or shut at pleasure by means of a pulley cord. The 

 building will, of course, front the south, and the door may be at either 

 end. 



The border for the grapes should be made partly on the inside and 

 partly on the outside of the front wall, so that the roots of the vines 

 may extend through to the open border. A trellis of wire should be 

 fixed to the rafters, about sixteen inches from the glass, on which the 

 vines are to be trained. Early in the spring the vines, which should be 

 two-year-old roots, may be planted in the inside border, about a foot 

 from the front wall, one vine below each rafter. 



* And never on an arbor, except for the purposes of shade. 



