GGG 



THE rRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Feb. 



quantity of fresh tlung to be introduced at cacli turning, must 

 be regulated by the greater or smaller degree of heat that is 

 found in the house, as the season and other circumstances 

 appear to require it. The tem})erature kept up is pretty re- 

 gular, being from 65° to 70°. Mr. French contends, that the 

 moist vapour transfused through the house is essentially bene- 

 ficial, not only because it discourages tlie existence of insects, 

 and destroys their ova, but it likewise facilitates the setting and 

 welling of the fruit." 



Forcing vines by means of dung-heat, has been occasionally 

 practised since the days of Justice, in Scotland, and Lawrence 

 and Switzer, in England, but not much attended to till of late 

 years. That it is practicable, is placed beyond all doubt ; but 

 the question is, whether it be more economical than the more 

 usual mode of applying fire-heat. Mr. Knight gives the fol- 

 lowing directions for ripening grapes in an inclined melon or 

 cucumber frame, either with dung-heat or without : — After 

 placing the bed at three feet distance from the wall to which 

 tlie vines were trained, and introducing their branches into 

 the frame, through holes made at the north end of it (the 

 vines having been trained to a southern wall), as soon as the 

 first violent heat of the bed has subsided. The White Chas- 

 selas grape thus treated, ripens in July, if the branches of the 

 vine be introduced in the end of April, and a most abundant 

 crop be thus obtained ; but the necessity of pruning very 

 closely, renders the branches, which have been forced, unpro- 

 ductive the succeeding season, and others from tlie walls must 

 be consequently substituted. I have," he says, " always put 

 a small quantity of mould in the bed, and covered it with 

 tiles. If an inclined plane of earth be substituted for the hot- 

 bed, and vines be trained in a frame adapted to it, the grapes 

 ripen perfectly in August ; and if small holes be made through 

 the sides of the frame, through which the young shoots of the 

 vine can extend themselves in the open air, a single plant, and 

 a fi-ame of moderate size, will be found annually to produce 

 a considerable weight of grapes. For this purpose, the frames 

 should not be more than eight or ten feet long, nor more than 

 five or six in breadth, or the young shoots will noi be so 

 advantageously conducted out of them into the open air ; and 



