18 



GLEANINGS ON lIORTICUl TUllE. 



evening as will be totally consumed soon after midnight. If any 

 remain the next morning, be sure to pull it clean out, and lay 

 the fire for lighting again in the afternoon. 



During the swelling of the berry, the temperature should be 

 sixty-five degrees in fair weather — sixty degrees as a night heat, 

 or in wet and windy weather, as heat, without a proportionate 

 amount of light, is productive of injury, and will also prevent 

 the plants drawing. Give a free circulation of air during night, 

 as well as morning, provided the necessary warmth can be main- 

 tained, for an early ventilation is of paramount importance. 

 Syringing is required whilst the vines are breaking ; but to con- 

 tinue it after this period is certainly a most erroneous mode of 

 procedure. This treatment will subdue the red spider, with the 

 addition of sulphur dressing and fumigation, which must be had 

 recourse to on suitable occasions. No plan is more likely to 

 produce a sufficient quantity of young bearing wood, than the 

 long-rod system of pruning, by which one or more J'oung shoots 

 are being constantly brought up from the bottom of the tree, to 

 produce fruit in their turn, when the old or last year's bearers 

 are cut out. This plan has been practised, with success, for the 

 last half century. Great virtue is to be attached to the supply 

 of a reasonable portion of vapour ; it is found beneficial in de- 

 stroying the ova of insects until the leaves are pushed forth, when 

 the house must be shut up, and the vines kept in a warm tem- 

 perature while they blossom. 



The wood which has to produce the future crop will be all 

 made during this period; and, with a good heat, it will grow 

 compact, and better able to ripen fruit. If the house be kept too 

 cool at the beginning of forcing, the wood will be soft and long- 

 jointed, and therefore subsequently barren. Vinesshould be planted 

 both outside and inside the house, to secure a succession crop, and 

 the exterior borders so high as to allow of their being laid in 

 close to the top of the front parapet, by which means little of the 

 stems will be exposed to the cold. It is a good thing to cover 

 them with soft hay-bands wound round them, and to water these 

 stems frequently with a syringe, as the moisture contributes to 

 their breaking stronger and the production of vigorous shoots, 

 and the roots must also be encouraged to come to the surface of 

 the vine border, by means of half-rotten hot dung being spread 

 over them, while forcing, every fortnight, the cold manure having 

 been removed, and a copious supply of liquid manure preceding 



