THE CULTURE OF THE VINE AT THOMERY. 423 



the first fortnight the heat is not allowed to rise 

 above from 58° F. to 65° F. The fortnight after it is 

 allowed to rise to 78° F. or 80° F._, from which time until 

 the grapes are ripe the heat is maintained at from 80° F. 

 to 88° F. The time of flowering requires a great deal of 

 attention, for on it depends entirely the success of the 

 result. In order that fecundation should take place under 

 the most favourable circumstances, and that the grapes 

 should be well formed, it is absolutely necessary that the 

 temperature should be maintained between 78° F. and 

 88° F. ; also that the vine should have plenty of light 

 and dry air/^ 



The low span-roofed house is constructed in the following 

 manner : — On the east and west are built two small brick 

 walls twenty-eight inches high, and in the centre of the 

 enclosed space are placed strong posts about five feet high, 

 and distant from each other about three feet. A plank 

 fourteen inches wide, nailed on the top of these posts, ties 

 them together solidly and forms a sort of coping. This 

 plank is covered with sheet zinc, and bars of iron are carried 

 from it to the walls serving as supports to the lights. At 

 each end a door is constructed for the attendants to go in 

 and out, and on each side is a thermometer for regulating 

 the temperature. The interior of the hothouse is about 

 ten feet wide at the base, so that the rows of vines are 

 distant from the side walls about eighteen or twenty inches, 

 and one side gets the efifect of the sun in the morning, 

 the other in the afternoon. Two rows of pulleys are at- 

 tached to the wooden coping for working the straw mats, 

 which ought to be taken off every morning and replaced in 

 the evening.''^ 



Thus M. Hose-Charmeux speaks of his forced culture of 

 the vine. In addition to the houses here figured and al- 

 luded to he employs a well constructed portable lean-to 

 house — portable because the French yet believe in the 

 virtue of the plan of alternately forcing and resting their 

 trees, a system which we have long ago proved to be 

 worthless. 



