624 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



but great caution is required in using it. It is 

 astonishing, during the period of active growth, 

 what an immense quantity of dung-water vines 

 will take. I have frequently watered them 

 twice a-day with it, and this I prefer to placing 

 bottom-pans or feeders under the pots. If 

 dung-water is properly cleared and diluted, it 

 may be given twice for fresh water once. When 

 the grapes are fully swelled and beginning to 

 colour, water must be more sparingly applied, 

 using clean water only. When the fruit is ripe, 

 if the house is wanted for other purposes, the 

 plants may be removed to any dry house or room, 

 where the grapes will keep until wanted." We 

 have kept grapes on plants in pots for six weeks 

 after they were ripe, by placing them in a dry 

 dark room. The leaves by that time having per- 

 formed their necessary functions, fall off, and 

 the plants are put into a complete state of rest, 

 suffering in no way from the darkness to which 

 they have been subjected. Upon the whole, 

 the pot system is much to be preferred to that 

 of subjecting established plants, whose roots are 

 not under the same control, to the process of 

 extremely early forcing. Although success has 

 attended fruiting the vine in pots the season 

 after they have been originated from the bud, 

 yet a greater degree of certainty will follow the 

 practice of fruiting them when not less than 

 two years old, and resting the plants every 

 alternate year. 



The best structures for pot-culture are shown 

 in vol. i. figs. 421, 423, 424. 



Mr Saunders'' trough-culture, which is merely 

 a modification of pot-culture {vide vol. i., fig. 

 424), is detailed in his "Treatise on the Cul- 

 ture of the Vine;" and we may here remark 

 that we have never seen finer grapes grown in 

 pots than those we have seen under this judicious 

 cultivator's management. If, he says, the vines 

 are required for early bearing the following sea- 

 son, the eyes — for it should be observed, he 

 grows his young vines from eyes — should be put 

 in before the middle of January. The pots in 

 which the eyes are put are plunged in a pit or 

 frame in not less than 80°, nor to exceed 90°, 

 the surface-heat being maintained at 70°. When 

 they have attained the height of 2 or 3 inches, 

 they are taken from the pots in which they were 

 placed at first, and planted singly in 60-sized 

 pots. The soil used at this stage is loam, leaf- 

 mould, and sand, with a little well- decomposed 

 stable manure, which, he says, tends much, at 

 this early stage, to strengthen and give vigour 

 both to the roots and shoots. They are again 

 placed in bottom-heat, and a sweet and pure 

 atmosphere maintained around them, keeping 

 them rather dry than otherwise. " As soon as 

 the pots are filled with roots, re-pot them into 

 32-sized pots, using at this potting a greater 

 portion of decomposed manure, and so much 

 the less of vegetable mould. Put them, when 

 potted, into a vinery or other convenient house, 

 where a temperature of from 70° to 80° is main- 

 tained. Place the pots on shelves, and as near 

 the glass as practicable. The great object to be 

 observed is to keep them in a free -growing 

 state, air being a most essential point, which 

 ought to be admitted freely, but of course not 



depressing the internal heat below the previous 

 given standard." When these pots are well 

 filled with roots,- shift again into No. 8 -sized 

 pots, using a stronger compost ; drain thoroughly, 

 and place them in a house where they are to 

 complete their first year's growth, keeping them 

 at least 16 inches from the glass, and increasing 

 the temperature from 5° to 10°. " When the 

 vines have grown to the length of 8 or 12 feet, 

 it will be necessary to stop them; and if they 

 are as healthy and strong as they ought to 

 be, they will, immediately after being pinched 

 off, throw out lateral shoots from the buds at 

 the extreme ends; and as it is of great import- 

 ance to prevent the other principal buds from 

 breaking" — that is, those upon which the crop 

 is depending — " allow the top laterals to grow to 

 the length of 6 or 8 inches before pinching; but 

 the lateral shoots, which are emitted from the 

 base of the fruiting-buds, should be stopped 

 beyond the first joint. Water freely at the 

 roots, and occasionally with liquid manure. 

 When the wood is fully ripened, remove the 

 plants to a south wall, protecting the roots 

 from frost, and the rods from being broken, 

 until the season arrives when the plants are to 

 be again excited into growth. All the pruning 

 necessary is merely to shorten the rods to the 

 required length, which of course will be regu- 

 lated greatly by their strength, and this short- 

 ening should be done as soon as the leaves fall 

 off. The period of taking them into the house 

 again will depend on the season the fruit is re- 

 quired to be ripened. Mr Saunders begins forc- 

 ing Muscats in December, and has the fruit ripe 

 in the first week in May. The temperature, 

 during the first fortnight, he maintains at from 

 50° to 55°, and gradually increases it to 70°. 

 Until the vines have pushed into bud, the 

 atmosphere is kept genially moist by frequent 

 syringing with tepid water; and if dry at the 

 root, a little liquid manure is applied. To pre- 

 vent the roots becoming at this stage too damp, 

 the pots are slightly elevated, by placing pieces 

 of wood or brickbats under the edges of their 

 bottoms. This also favours the circulation of 

 the heat of the house around them, and admits 

 air to the roots through the openings in the 

 pots. " When the buds are regularly broken, 

 and each shoot advanced to the length of 6 

 inches," Mr Saunders then plants the vines in 

 troughs, which run along his vineries near the 

 front, and also towards the middle of the house, 

 the former elevated about midway between the 

 floor and the glass roof, and the latter on top 

 of the parapet wall, which forms one side of 

 the passage behind. The vines in the former 

 case are trained up the roof to the middle 

 of the rafter, while the latter are trained to 

 the top of the house. Mr Saunders gives the 

 following reasons for transferring his vines 

 from the pots into troughs : " The advan- 

 tage," he says, " to be derived is immense, by 

 securing to them all the benefit of a border, in- 

 dependent of giving every root and branch an 

 equal temperature, which is so essential to pro- 

 mote their perfection." His mode of transfer- 

 ring them to the troughs he thus describes : 

 " First, place upon the laths forming the bottom 



