70 



EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 



the top of the house, and ripened thoroughly in the 

 autumn. They would have yielded a good crop of 

 grapes half-way up the house, in 1848, had they been 

 allowed to do so. As it was, they were allowed to 

 carry two bunches to each rod, making four to each 

 plant. In 1849 they bore twelve bunches on each rod, 

 and in 1850 the heaviest crop of Muscats I ever saw, 

 many of the bunches weighing 3^ lb.; and up to 1860, 

 when I saw them last, they have borne exceedingly 

 heavy crops of fine grapes. Had I prepared a double 

 set of vines in the same way, so as to have cropped 

 one-half the first year, and then to have cut them out, 

 the border and vines could have been renewed without 

 the loss of a single crop. From this house I have more 

 than once cut old grapes in March ; on one occasion, 

 on the 16th of that month. 



At this date, March 1869, I have received the follow- 

 ing replies to queries I addressed to Mr Edlington about 

 this Muscat house : " The roots of the Muscats have 

 traversed the border 15 feet wide, passed underneath 

 the walk at a depth of two feet, and are there as thick 

 as walking-sticks; and they extend 60 feet into the 

 asparagus brake beyond the walk, in which they seem 

 to luxuriate amazingly. The vines are in fine health, 

 and every year they bear enormous crops without a 

 shanked berry." Mr Edlington further states that he 

 crops the vine-border proper with bedding plants half- 

 way across it, and that he believes it does the vines no 

 harm. My own opinion is, that the case might be other- 

 wise were the feeding roots of the vines confined to the 

 original border, instead of enjoying a roving commis- 

 sion in the asparagus quarter. My heau ideal of a 

 vine-border would be one tacked on to a well-made 

 asparagus plantation, where top-dressing was an annual 



