Jan.] 



THE FORCING GARDEN. 



583 



we have, also, often observed vineries planted equally thick 

 of plants, without producing crops of any merit. It therefore 

 appears, that more depends upon the system of good manage- 

 ment than upon the distance at which they should be planted, 

 the mode of training, the form of the house, or any of the 

 many points advocated by some of our theoretical horticul- 

 turists. In planting vines, some attention should be paid to 

 the situation each should occupy in the house, according to 

 the lateness or earliness of ripening of the kinds. Thus, if 

 vines of early ripening be planted at that end of the house 

 where the flues enter it, and later sorts at the end farthest from 

 the fire, the season of grapes will be prolonged for a greater 

 length of time ; and if this order of arrangement be reversed, 

 the crops will be more uniform in their order of ripening. 

 Vines of delicate habits, such as the Frontignacs, should be 

 planted by themselves, and not mixed with the more hardy 

 and luxuriant-growing kinds, as in that case the former would 

 be robbed of their share of nourishment by the latter ; and 

 probably a want of attention to this point may be the cause of 

 so many complaints of the want of success in the cultivation of 

 the finer kinds of grapes, when planted promiscuously among 

 others. Some grapes require a greater degree of heat to 

 ripen them in perfection than others, such therefore should be 

 planted in pine-stoves, or in separate houses by themselves. 



Speechly, in his " Treatise on the Vine," justly condemns the 

 practice of planting all the different sorts of vines at the same 

 distances, and recommends planting in proportion to the natu- 

 ral character and qualities of the kinds. Vines planted at 

 three or four feet distant, he considers as crowded, and ob- 

 serves that, although by this mode a house will soon become 

 furnished, yet in a few years time they become cramped for 

 room, and are, consequently, rendered less productive. For 

 those vines which have a space of twelve feet in height to grow, 

 he recommends the more robust kinds to be allowed twelve 

 feet distance at their roots, plant from plant, and the less 

 luxuriant ones, a distance of six feet from each other. But, 

 in order to fill the space to be covered with vines, he purposes 

 to plant temporary plants, to be cut out as the permanent ones 

 extend in growth. Such temporary plants he advises to be 



