422 THE CULTURE 01' THE VINE AT THOMERY. 



the British grape grower, who is certainly in advance of 

 all others as regards the indoor culture of this old and ever 

 popular fruit. Nevertheless, M. E-ose-Charmeux^s garden 

 exhibits such an advance on the ordinary style of forcing 

 grapes around Paris that it deserves a few words. " The 

 walls of the pits are of brick ; the highest, towards the 

 north, measures about five feet in height ; the front 

 wall being only about two feet high. The width of the 

 hothouse at its base between the walls is about four 

 feet six inches, and the length indefinite. The higher wall 

 is covered on the top with a deal board a foot wide and 



Fig. 242. 



Small span-roofed house for forcing the Vine : ten feet five iaches wide, 

 and five feet live inches high. 



projecting towards the south ; the lower wall is covered in 

 the same way with a board five inches wide. The walls 

 ought to be rough cast, and kept perfectly white like those 

 of the gardens. Bars of iron serve as supports to the frames, 

 and to keep the walls in their places when the frames 

 are taken away, and rods provided with holes are placed 

 in the middle of each frame so that they may be opened to 

 different heights according to circumstances. A copper 

 hotwater pipe, four inches in diameter, serves to warm the 

 structure, and an entrance-door is constructed at each end. 

 Grape forcing begins from the 15th to the 25th of December, 

 in order to have ripe fruit by the end of April. During 



