CULTIVATION OF VINES IN POTS. 
99 
struck in the heat of a encumber hotbed, in February, 1828. When 
they had pushed a joint each, I had them potted off singly into pots 
of about six inches diameter. The soil I used was a fresh turfy loam 
that had been paired off two years before, about three inches in thick¬ 
ness, and had been laid in a heap. With the loam, I mixed about 
one-third of well rotted dung. In these pots, the vines grew ama¬ 
zingly ; in two months they had reached eight or ten feet high, and 
the shoots were more than half an inch in diameter. At the end of 
this time I repotted the plants, using the same kind of soil, and pots 
about ten inches in diameter. I put an inch deep of broken pieces 
of pot into each, and potted the vines with balls entire. I then 
shortened the shoots by cutting them back to about three feet, at 
which place I had suffered a lateral to remain; this I did in order to 
strengthen the vines. A leading shoot pushed from each very vigor¬ 
ously, but I kept stopping them every time they had reached one 
foot from the last stopping. At all times 1 freely supplied them with 
water and liquid manure occasionally. The plants were kept in the 
vinery all the season. I placed them on the front flue upon a trellis, 
and under the centre of each sash, so that all possible light was af¬ 
forded them.” 
“ At the end of October, I turned the plants into the open air, pla¬ 
cing them under a south wall. At the same time I pruned the vines, 
cutting them down to just below the place where the lowest lateral 
had been allowed to grow for a leading shoot, at the first stopping in 
summer. When the vines were a little hardened, which was the case 
by the beginning of December, I took them into a vinery in which 
no fire was kept during winter, here they were protected from wet 
and very severe frosts; thus none of the buds suffered from the alter¬ 
nates of wet and dry, which sometimes is the case with vines whollv 
exposed.” 
“ When I determined to force some of the vines, I then repotted 
them with entire balls, into pots thirteen or fourteen inches in diame¬ 
ter, using the same kind of compost as before. The roots being 
coiled round the ball and matted, I shook it forcibly against the 
ground which loosened the ends of the fibrous roots without da- 
maging them. This attention to the roots enables them, when the 
plants are repotted, immediately to strike into the soil. I do not in¬ 
troduce the vines I am about forcing into a brisk heat at once, but 
do it gradually.” 
“ From vines treated as above, I do not fail to have, the second sea¬ 
son, less than ten hunches of fruit. When the bunches are shewn, 
I stop the lead, and never allow it to push long afterwards before it 
H 3 
