72 



EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 



them unsiglitly. All our other vineries were planted 

 with young vines in 1856, and in 1860 were in full 

 bearing. Under these circumstances I was induced to 

 make arrangements for doing away with the old vines 

 in question, but, before doing so, determined to have 

 one more crop off them as early as possible in 1861, 

 and replant the house the same year. To hasten this I 

 removed a pine-pit no longer required in the house, the 

 removal of the front wall of which gave access to the 

 roots of the vines in the outside border through the 

 arches of the front wall of the house. I then filled the 

 interior of the house, previously occupied by the pit, 

 with hot fermenting dung and leaves. This material 

 was placed in close contact with the roots of the vines 

 through the arches, and acted as a hot lining to the 

 entire border. The outside surface of the border was 

 covered with dry leaves and thatched. The house Avas 

 started in this way on the 1st of September, and on the 

 1st of January 1861 we cut the first dish of grapes, — 

 exactly three months earlier than we cut from the same 

 house the year before, though started at the same time, 

 and treated in the same manner, with the exception of 

 the hot lining to the roots. Seeing that the success of 

 this experiment was so satisfactory, and finding, on ex- 

 amination, that a host of fine young roots had estab- 

 lished themselves in the lining as it cooled, I made up 

 my mind to give them another trial, and last summer I 

 pruned them in July. In the end of August I put a 

 quantity of hot fermenting dung and leaves on the top 

 of the previous year's lining, so to speak ; and we cut 

 excellent grapes on the 1st of January 1862. The 

 crop was nearly double that of last year ; and in March 

 the wood was perfectly ripe, and much stronger than 

 ever I saw it in this house before. I need scarcely add 



