GI.EANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



21 



the thrips, green fly, and red spider, before the fruit attains its 

 full size or colour, as it cannot be then applied without injury to 

 the fruit. 



But, before I proceed, let me warn you against using sheet- 

 glass in your houses, as much as 'the Fire King,'* for it 

 shrivels and dries np the young vine-leaves when bright 

 sunny weather succeeds that which is cloudy. This burning 

 (which quite alarmed me the other morning, when looking 

 over my promising rods, with about twenty-five bunches on 

 each,) results from waves and knots in the glass, which act as so 

 many foci for concentrating the sun's rays. As a remedy, how- 

 ever, daub the outside of the glass over with a thinnish solution 

 of — say two pounds of glue mixed in two quarts of water boiled 

 in a pot, and about six pounds of whiting being added, until it is 

 of the consistence of paint ; apply it with a painter's broad brush 

 when hot, on the outside of your lights, which will thus appear as 

 if they were made of ground-glass ; it will remain on during the 

 season, and can easily be removed by rubbing it with a piece of 

 flannel and warm water, and a scrubbing-brush. For the summer, 

 the advantages of ground-glass will thus be secured without its 

 corresponding disadvantages in winter. Had I not discovered 

 this invaluable receipt from the Cottage Gardener and the right 

 proportions by experience, my promising vines would have been 

 annihilated for this season. 



Take off all lateral shoots and tendrils, as they now rob the 

 vine and cause confusion, and remove any injured leaves, but 

 never take off any healthy ones, or your fruit will be shrivelled ; 

 and admit air freely from all the sashes. 



To train vines well, some forethought is required in selecting 

 proper shoots at an early period of the season. It must be pre- 

 determined how to prune and disbud the wood so as to provide 

 for a crop the following season. Such shoots as have been 

 stopped will push again: allow the lateral that pushes to run a 

 few joints, and then cut it back to one, and so on as it pushes, 

 until it stops entirely. When the proper shoot, from which these 

 issued becomes ripened nearly to the extremity, the whole of the 

 said laterals may be cut off at the originally shortened part, or at 

 one joint above it, if there be reason to fear that the uppermost 

 bud of the proper shoot will start. When the fruit is sweUing, 

 thin the bunches, so as to give sufficient room for the berries, and 

 * Keeping the fires by night at too high a temperature. 



