464 



GROWING THE GRAPE ON OPEN WALLS, 



vines are taken out in December, when those growing in the back path are 

 begun to be forced by taking down the temporary partition. It is necessary 

 to observe that the front flue is not, as is usual, between the path and the 

 front wall of the house, but between the path and the front wall of the pit, 

 and that there is a double partition of glass in front, between which the vines 

 are wintered. Various minor details it is uimecessary to enter into. 



974. Another mode of growing three crops of grapes in one house. — This was 

 practised for ten years at a place in Essex, a part of which time it was under 

 the care of a journeyman, who sent us the following account of it. The 

 house was 45 feet long and 18 feet wide, a pit occupied the centre in which 

 pines were fruited. The flue entered the back of the house at one end, and 

 was carried round the front of the pit, and under the back pathway into the 

 chimney at the same end the flue entered. Vines were planted in the front 

 pathway next the pit, one under each rafter. These produced the first 

 crop of grapes. The}'- were begun to be forced in the beginning of February, 

 and they were ripe by the middle or latter end of J une. Those for the 

 second crop were planted outside the house in the front. They were intro- 

 duced into the house in the latter end of March, or the beginning of April, 

 and trained under the roof over the front flue and pathway, as well as up 

 some of the rafters : these ripened their fruit in August. The vine pro- 

 ducing the last crop was planted at the front corner of one end outside. It 

 was carried with a single stem up the end rafter to the back wall, where it 

 was trained just under the coping to the full length of the house. Laterals 

 from the main stem were left so as to come in under each rafter to which they 

 were trained. This vine was taken in about the beginning of September, by 

 entirely removing the end of the house for the purpose, the end being replaced 

 as soon as the vine was properly fixed. About this time the vines which 

 had produced the first crop of grapes were taken across the flue and wintered 

 outside the house till the February following. Grapes have been cut from the 

 vine against the back wall, up to the 8th of February, and they were then 

 in excellent condition. Our correspondent has known it ripen off upwards of 

 300 bunches, with the berries well swelled and coloured and never shrivelled. 

 The kind was the Black Hamburgh Valentines. — {G. M. 1841, p. 74.) 



975. Keeping Grapes. — Ripe Grapes may be retained on the branches for 

 several months, provided the air of the house be kept dry and cool. To 

 absorb moisture from the air without heating it, the floor of the house is 

 sometimes covered with dry sand, coal ashes, decayed granite or trap stone. 

 Grapes may also be preserved for an indefinite period by cutting off the 

 bunches with a joint or two of wood below the bunch, and applying hot 

 sealing-wax so as completely to shut out air from the wound. The bunches 

 are then suspended in a cool, airy room, and will keep from October till 

 May. Care must be taken that they are neither exposed to heat nor damp, 

 nor to a current of very dry air. — (G. M. 1841, p. 646.) 



SuBSECT. IV. Growing the Grape on openWalls.and onCottages. 

 South of London this might be practised to a great extent, and the grapes 

 brought to a high degree of perfection, as has been proved by Mr. Clement 

 Hoare, whose excellent Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Grape 

 Vine on open Walls, we most strongly recommend to all who intend to culti- 

 vate this fruit in the open air. In the southern counties of England, where 

 vines are grown on cottages, Mr. Hoare is of opinion that five times the 



