C 51 ] 



V. On the Cultivation of the Vine upon the open Wall, at Crox- 

 dale. In a Letter to the Secretary. By William Thomas 

 Salyin, Esq. F. H. S. 



Read November 17, 1829. 



Sir, 



I a m happy to comply with your request in explaining the man- 

 ner in which I cultivate the Vine on the common flued wall, without 

 glass or any other kind of covering. 



My wall is above eighteen feet high ; fourteen or sixteen feet 

 would answer equally well. The fire-places are made in the form 

 of ovens, as I burn nothing but wood in them. This may appear 

 rather extraordinary as I live in a coal country. My reason for so 

 doing is, I find wood produces a more steady heat by the manage- 

 ment of the fires in the following manner. After an accumulation 

 of ashes is produced in the oven, they should be used to cover the 

 embers at night, or at any time when those who attend the fires 

 retire to rest, and also to regulate the fire during the day, when 

 less heat is required. The red-hot charcoal so covered will con- 

 tinue to give out heat for several hours, and is ready to rekindle 

 a fresh supply of wood, whereas coal requires more constant at- 

 tendance, or will soon go out. I begin to light the fires in the 

 ovens as soon as the buds begin to break in April, and continue 

 them night and day till the fruit is perfected, except a few weeks 

 in July and August, if the season is hot. Rotten dung is put to 

 the roots and dug in during the spring ; the Vines are trained to 

 the wall and pruned in the usual way. The Vine on the open 

 wall has been cultivated at Croxdale ever since the year 1725, and 

 under my direction for the last twenty-nine years with the greatest 



