53 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
of hybridization be more conveniently performed. 
We are told, however, that if sufficient care be 
taken, the pollen of the exotic may be gathered in 
a glass phial, and kept until the natives in the 
open air come into flower. 
Whichever course is taken, let the hybridizer 
proceed as follows : Cut off three quarters of the 
buds on every bunch to be treated, leaving only 
the strongest buds. Watch them as they come 
into flower, and just before they are fully expand¬ 
ed, clip off the anthers with a pair of scissors 
before they have burst and so scattered their pol¬ 
len on the stigmas : if they do this, your work is 
lost. Having removed the anthers, go to the ex¬ 
otic vines, and with a camel’s hair brush, take 
pollen from the flowers, and rub it on the stigmas 
of the native sorts. Do this to as many hunches 
as you have time and patience to expet iment with, 
and repeat the process several days ir. r uccession, 
until it is quite ceitain that the wotk has been 
effectually done. If the impregnation has been 
effected, the embryo at the base of each pistil will 
soon begin to enlarge ; if it has not. the embryo 
or berry will remain unchanged. When seeds so 
raised have ripened, gather and keep as above. 
Raising Grapes in Pots. 
Just now there is no little interest in this sub¬ 
ject, and we are glad to see and encourage it. 
There is no prettier sight than a vigorous little 
vine growing in a diminutive pot of earth, but 
loaded down with delicious clusters of grapes. 
Flowers in pots are always beautiful, but grape¬ 
vines in pots or tubs have both beauty and utility— 
they strikingly illustrate the force of the Latin 
phrase “ utile cum duke." And what is still more 
interesting, this species of culture is within the 
reach of every class of persons, the dwellers in 
cities and villages as well as country residents, 
as we shall speak of before we get through. In¬ 
quiries for information on the subject constantly 
reach us, to which we cheerfully respond. 
Grape-vines are raised in pots with two dis¬ 
tinct objects in view ; first for propagating vines 
for planting afterwards in the open ground or 
vinery; and second for growing exotic vines 
wholly in pots under glass, simply for the fruit. 
1. Of the newer native sorts, prohahly many 
millions of young plants will be propagated in 
pots the coming Spring, and yet the indications 
are that they will hardly suffice for the demand. 
The pieces are prepar¬ 
ed as follows: In the 
latter part of this month 
Fig. 2. or early in March, pre¬ 
pare the cuttings. Choose plump and ripe wood, 
cut it into small pieces having a single bud to each, 
with about an inch of wood above and below. 
This amount of stem is considered necessary to 
furnish food for the young plant before it is able 
to draw it from the ground. Fig. 2 may repre¬ 
sent a bud prepared for striking. Now prepare a 
simple hot-bed, 
made of two or n^m- 
three feet of par- 
tially decayed Fig- 3. 
manure, well turned over and sweetened 
with ashes or lime. Cover this with six or 
eight inches of good sandy soil. If neither 
pots nor boxes can be had, the eyes may be set out 
in the prepared earth ; but experience shows that 
it is better to use pots or shallow boxes with 
holes in the bottom, planting the buds in these 
and then plunging them i i the hot-bed. The 
pots (three-inch pots) should have a few pieces of 
broken crocks or charcoal, or oyster-shells at the 
holtom ; over these lay a little moss, then fill half 
full with good vegetable mold ; afterwards fill 
half the remaining space with sand. Now, lay in 
the bud, and fill up the pot with sand, pressing it 
down firmly. Some maintain that the buds 
“strike ” better if split, as sho ■n in fig. 2 la t 
the pots be plunged in the hot-bed up to their 
rims. Maintain a heat of about 70° to 75° by 
day, and 55° to C0° by night. The pots of course 
are tp be kept under glass during the cold weath¬ 
er. Keep the air under the glass close and moist. 
In the course of a month or six weeks, they 
will have made shoots an inch or two long, when 
they should be shifted into larger pots. As soon 
as the shoots get six or eight inches long, they 
should be transferred to still larger pots : those of 
a quart size being large enough for ordinary pur¬ 
poses. If it is desired to raise exotics (foreign 
vines) for pot-culture, and to fruit th^next year, 
they should be shifted again into gallon-pots, and 
their growth encouraged as much as possible. 
For the native sorts, forcing their growth through¬ 
out the Summer is n t to be recommended. By 
the method above stated, they will make good 
healthy plants by Autumn. 
2. A few words as to the uses and methods of 
growing grapes in pots for fruiting In this prac¬ 
tice, there are advantages and disadvantages. Of 
the latter, we may mention the extra care and 
time needful in transplanting and watering, the 
expense and trouble of rai ing a succession of 
young vines to supply the places of those ex¬ 
hausted, of providing pots and tubs, tank for ma¬ 
nure water, etc., etc. Of the advantages, much 
may be said. It is suited to the circumstances 
and wants of amateurs and small gardeners, etc. 
Any one having a small green-house can grow 
grapes in pots. He can either buy his young 
plants, or can start them himself in a little forc¬ 
ing-house, and then bring them on to the shelves 
of his green-house. There, they will not inter¬ 
fere with his other plants (many of them being 
taken to and plunged in the open garden in Sum¬ 
mer), and the berries will ripen as well as in a 
regular vinery. The poor man who can not af¬ 
ford the luxury of a green-house or grapery, can 
at least build him a shed, in size according to bis 
means, and cover it with a few sash. Humble 
as the building looks, and destitute as it is of wide 
and costly borders, he may grow pot-grapes there¬ 
[February, 
in as well as in the most splendid vinery. The 
man of business, who has only a little back-yard 
in a city lot, can put up a glass house, eight or 
ten feet square, and work out for himself great 
delight in managing a dozen pots of grapes. 
So, if one has a regular cold grapery, and wish¬ 
es to get an earlier crop than that would furnish 
him, he can start a few vines in pots in his hot¬ 
house during the month of March, and after the 
fruit is set, he can remove these pots to the 
vinery or open ground even, and ripen the fruit 
in June or July. There is an advantage also, in 
the matter of preserving the fruit after ripening. 
By removing the pots into a cool, airy room, the 
fruit may be kept on the vines for three or four 
months perfectly fresh. 
But we need not speak further of the advan¬ 
tages of this practice. How is the thing done! 
It is very simple. Buy young plants in pots, or 
propagate them from eyes, as already shown. If 
they are in quart pots, shift them into gallon pots, 
or boxes or kegs of the same size. A good soil 
for potting, may be made of rotted sods chopped 
fine, leaf mold, old barn-yard manure, a little lime 
rubbish and some bits of charcoal. Mr. J. F 
Allen’s formula is this: “Sods, three parts; 
leaf-mold, two parts ; rubbish, or leached ashes 
and charcoal one part.” This makes a rich, po¬ 
rous soil in which the grape delights to ramble. 
Give a good watering at each shifting. Tie the 
canes to stakes as they 
grow. When they are 
seven or eight feet high, 
pinch off the ends, and 
continue the pinching as 
the buds push. By the 
lastof July,transfer them 
to their final boxes for 
fruiting, which should 
be of three or four gal¬ 
lons size. Use the soil 
described above. For the 
remainder of the season, 
treat them in all respects 
like vines planted in the 
borders of a vinery, and 
byAutumn they will have 
made good wood for 
next year’s fruiting. In the Fall, prune back to 
two or three buds ; if very weak, cut down to 
one bud, and give a fresh supply of compost. 
Some advise to shorten in the longest roots in 
the Fall. Protect them from frost during the 
Winter, and give the roots just enough water to 
present th ir drying up. 
In training the vines next year, a very neat way 
is to use wire supports in the form of a circulai 
trellis, like fig. 4. If the roots are allowed to 
strike throu.h the holes at the bottom of the pot 
into the soil beneath, the canes will become 
strong enough to bear fruit the succeeding year ; 
though it is the doctrine of some that pot vines 
should rest every other year. In the Fall, cutoff 
the roots which have struck into the soil below, 
clean the pots and wash the canes with the mix¬ 
ture commonly used in graperies. Now lay down 
the canes for their winter nap. We should add 
that, during the growing season, the vines should 
have frequent waterings of liquid manure. Drain¬ 
age from the dung heap well diluted may be used, 
or guano dissolved at the rate of one ounce to a 
gallon of water. In all other respects but those 
now mentioned, the treatment of grapes in pots 
is similar to that employed in ordinary culture. 
Mr. Chorlton recommends the following as the 
best five varieties for pot-culture : Black Ham¬ 
burgh, Chasselas Fontainebleau, Grisly Frontig- 
nan, White Frontignan, and also Black Prince. 
Fig. 4. 
