CULTURE OF VINES. 
58 
the pot, will keep the soil in a wet stagnant state, and it is well 
known that retentive soils are the very worst for vines. I admit that 
some hardy sorts will succeed better in pots, such as Mr. Mearns 
mentions: Miller’s Burgundy, and Muscadines, but they are very 
inferior to the white Muscat of Alexandria, Frontignacs, &c. which 
were the sorts I have in pots and tubs. By putting them into the 
greenhouse till the eyes were swelled ready to push into leaf, I was 
giving them spring as it were, and, by taking them from the green¬ 
house to the vinery, I was giving them summer. They were kept as 
near the glass and light as Mr. Brown could wish, but the idea of 
having grapes all the season round with success, I must say, quite 
baffles me. Vines that were taken in the end of last month will be 
coming in bloom in December, when the nights are long, and the 
days short and cloudy. If the vines he ever so near the glass, and 
heat he at command, the hazard is very great, if there be not two or 
three days bright sun shine, for the time of flowering and setting. 
I have frequently found the shows to curl up to the glass at that 
period, and wire off for want of sun ; and the want of sun-shine at 
the time of flowering is the greatest difficulty I meet with in early 
forcing of vines. I think a gardener that can supply his master’s 
table with grapes nine months out of twelve ought not to be com¬ 
plained of. 
I called on Mr. Dewar, gardener at Rcdburgb, near Newcastle on 
Tyne, a few days ago; he is an extensive pine and vine grower, and 
on going through the houses with him, he took me into a vinery 
where a quantity of fine grapes were hanging in great perfection. 
White Muscates, Frontignacs, Hamburgh, and several of the 
bunches appeared to be two and three pounds weight, from which 
house he will be able to send a dish to his master’s table every day 
till the new year. Had Mr. Brown been with me, he would have 
joined and said, farewell to grapes from vines in pots. A corres¬ 
pondent of mine saw Mr. Stafford’s vines in pots in a small stove, in 
March 1832 ; he speaks very highly about the old gentleman’s. 
My friend says, the vines were in great health, but the hunches 
small, Mr. Stafford told him they would increase in size wonderfully 
as the days lengthened. I should like to know the average weight 
of hunches on a vine in a pot, that has fourteen on it; my intention 
is to commence forcing a vinery in January, which will be ripe in 
June, and I would venture to sav, that any one vine in the house 
will have more weight of fruit than any four vines in pots in Der¬ 
byshire, or Nottinghamshire. I thank Mr. Smith for his kind invi- 
ration ; should I ever he in Nottinghamshire again, 1 will give him 
a call. 
