618 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



even lower. Care should at all times be taken 

 that cold water be not applied during early- 

 forcing; this, instead of benefiting the vines, 

 does the reverse, by chilling the temperature 

 around the roots, and so paralysing their energies 

 that the spongiolets will not take it in ; and, 

 which is worse, if applied in excess, they, as well 

 as the fine young fibrelets, may be destroyed 

 altogether. Where the borders without the 

 house are not vaulted, as described vol. i. p. 329, 

 figs. 445, 446, or heated by some of the means 

 abundantly there laid down, other means must 

 be employed to ward off the excess of damp by 

 rains or melting snow during winter, and also 

 for the exclusion of frost. Both are readily 

 guarded against by covering the external border 

 with leaves, fern, dry rank stable-litter, &c, and 

 coal-ashes have been used by us with consider- 

 able advantage. The chief advantage of all or 

 any of these, it will be readily understood, is to 

 exclude frost, and to absorb extra moisture ; 

 hence they should be frequently turned over, 

 removed when too damp, and replaced with dry 

 material. 



For more effectually insuring this, vide vol. i. 

 pp. 328, 377. 



For the first week after starting keep the 

 house at that temperature caused by the action 

 of the feeble rays of the sun on the glass only, 

 giving slight ventilation during the day, but 

 shutting up carefully every night. Water the 

 surface of the borders, floors, and all with liquid 

 manure heated to the extent previously men- 

 tioned. During the second week throw a slight 

 degree of heat during the day into the flues or 

 hot-water pipes, and shut up early in the after- 

 noon, so as to enclose as much of the solar heat 

 as possible. 



Before proceeding further in this direction, 

 we must say a word or two in behalf of vines 

 differently situated. We have been speaking 

 of such as are presumed to be planted within 

 the house, and whose main stems are guarded 

 against the effects of cold. There are many — 

 and we would say by far too many — particularly 

 in old gardens, where the roots are not only 

 wholly in the borders without the house, but 

 also where the main stem is without the house 

 also, and often to the length of 2 or 3 feet, as 

 the distance from the surface of the border may 

 be from the point where the vine enters the 

 house. Vines so situated require to have their 

 stems most carefully protected from cold, the 

 most primitive mode being to envelop the part 

 exposed with hay-bands, or to cover them with 

 dry littering matter, so secured as to prevent its 

 being blown away. Others, and with better 

 effect and much neater appearance, enclose them 

 within wooden boxes stuffed with dry moss. 

 The ingenious mode in use in the Royal Gar- 

 dens at Frogmore, and also that used by Mr 

 Saunders at Tedworth (vide vol. i. p. 315, fig. 

 428, p. 313, fig. 425), are worthy of imitation, 

 the former being the best mode of securing the 

 stems hitherto devised. In all such cases, how- 

 ever, there is danger of the cold reaching them, 

 which leads to the conclusion that it is better 

 to plant them within the house near the front, 

 so that the roots may have a free passage 



through openings left in the parapet- wall into 

 the external border; for it should be remem- 

 bered that the part called the collar or neck — 

 that is, the part which connects the stem and 

 roots together — is the most tender part of the 

 whole plant, and that most liable to suffer from 

 undue exposure. Where vines are not intended 

 to be taken out during winter, planting inside is 

 most judicious. In very early forcing it is well 

 to envelop the greater part of the main stem in 

 a bandage of moss, to prevent too rapid evapora- 

 tion in the surface of the larger branches, and 

 also to act as a reservoir of moisture to counter- 

 act the effects of fire-heat. Another precaution 

 at this time is deserving notice — that is, placing 

 the whole of the vine within the house in a 

 horizontal position, to secure regularity in the 

 buds breaking. If the vines are trained at 

 once up the rafters, the flow of sap upwards will 

 be so rapid that the eyes at the extremities of 

 the shoots will break first and strongest, and 

 hence deprive those towards the bottom of the 

 plants of their due share : many of the buds will 

 thus not break at all, and if they do, they will 

 be weak and often devoid of fruit. The case is 

 very different when the vines are laid in hori- 

 zontally at first, every bud breaking strongly, 

 and showing fruit nearly to the ground. We 

 follow this practice, and allow the young shoots 

 to attain the length of from 3 to 4 inches before 

 they are placed in a more perpendicular posi- 

 tion (vide vol. i. p. 339). The vine, like all 

 other trees, requires a season of rest, this season 

 commencing after the fruit is gathered and the 

 wood fully matured. This season is longer or 

 shorter, according to circumstances, but what- 

 ever may be its length, it must be accompanied 

 with a low temperature : still, however, the vines 

 must not be exposed to severe frosts, which 

 have in many instances killed them altogether; 

 and this is more particularly the case with vines 

 grown in the high temperature of a pine-stove. 

 The elastic powers of the wood are restored by 

 a few weeks' exposure to a low temperature, 

 which it never fails to lose when long confined 

 to a dry and warm atmosphere. The buds are 

 found also to break stronger and more uni- 

 formly. Some cultivators disregard this, and keep 

 their vines in their pine-stoves for many succes- 

 sive years together ; but these in general allow the 

 temperature to fall so low during autumn as not 

 to greatly injure the pines, and reason that at 

 that season, the vines being trained close under 

 the glass, the temperature of the house is low 

 on account of the diminution of solar heat, 

 and also that near the roof the house is coldest, 

 on account of the radiation of heat from the 

 glass. This, however, is a plan not to be i^e- 

 commended, and can never be so beneficial to 

 the vines as when they are, after being pruned, 

 laid down along the front of the house, and 

 separated from it by removing the front sashes 

 1 foot or 18 inches within the house, and ex- 

 cluding the vines altogether. 



For various modes of wintering vines, vide 

 vol. i., art. Vineries. 



Vines, during the early period of forcing, in 

 consequence of the use of an unnatural applica- 

 tion of fire-heat, and too often a scanty supply 



