378 
QUERIES AMI) ANSWERS. 
shoot was selected, and in the following autumn the plant was detached from, 
the parent. On January 1st, 1832, this layer was potted in light turfy surface 
mould, and brought into a stove, where the temperature was seldom above sixty 
degs. in the day, and fifty at night. The pot was about nine inches at the top, 
and ten inches deep; the plant was cut down to three eyes, and the object in 
view was the production of one shoot of bearing wood for the following year. 
During the spring and early summer, the growth of the sole selected shoot was 
about six feet, and when it had attained that length, the point was pinched oft’, 
just before a bud. Water was freely given, till the wood began to assume a 
brownish colour in several of the lower joints. 1 never objected to see the water 
pass through the soil in the feeder-pan below the pot; and as often as that be¬ 
came dry, 1 repeated the watering, but never suffered any stagnant fluid to re¬ 
main more than a day or two in the pan. When the wood began to ripen, the 
pot was removed, placed for a few days in a room adjoining to the stove, and 
finally, to a north-east wall, against which the plant was slightly nailed. In that 
situation it remained till December 26th, when the vine was repotted into a large 
pot, the diameter of which was sixteen inches, and its depth fourteen inches. 
The soil which I recommend is the grassy surface earth of a meadow, chopped 
into pieces of about an inch square. The turf should be about two inches thick, 
and the earthy part a free, light, sandy loam. With this vegetable earth, a 
fourth part of rotten leaves and a small portion, perhaps one-twentieth part of 
old mortar may be blended ; and it would not be amiss to add also to each pot 
of the size named, a pint of bone-dust, or of the clippings of feathers, for the 
latter as well as the former contain abundance of slowly decomposable animal 
gelatine and albumen. 
After potting, the vine was placed against a warm south east wall, the pot being 
protected from frost, by a deep covering of litter. It remained there till the 
last week in January, and was then taken into the room adjoining to the stove. 
On the twenty-seventh of the month I cut the shoot to the length of five feet, 
and took oft'two of the buds, for every one that was left; thus letting those that 
remained stand about a foot asunder, and on opposite sides of the shoot. In 
this operation, I found that the juices were in motion; for the sap flowed copi¬ 
ously at the wounds, particularly at the upper part of the rod. The vine was 
next placed in the stove upon the kerb of the pit. Referring to my diary, I find 
that on the 8th of February the buds began to unfold, and in seven days subse¬ 
quently there were one, two, or three bunches distinctly visible upon each shoo!, 
with the exception of the two lowest. On the 21st. the fruit being fairly devel¬ 
oped, the points of several laterals were pinched off above the joint beyond that 
which produced the upper bunch. Rain water just tepid, not above seventy deg. 
was given almost every day, till it reached the feeder, or whenever that which had 
passed through was taken up. Manure water, that is a weak solution of the 
drainings of a cow-stall, (one-sixth to five-sixths of rain water) was given to the 
extent of about a quart once every alternate week, as also soap-suds from the 
wash tub, reduced by adding an equal part of water, in the intermediate weeks. 
The temperature, during Feb. averaged at 7 or 8 o’c. a. m. 54 deg. noon or max¬ 
imum, about 66 deg. and at 10 p. m. 60 deg. In March the morning and even 
ing heat did not much exceed that of February; but that of mid-day, with sun, 
rose occasionally to 80 or 85 deg. April produced a considerable advance of 
temperature. The mornings and nights showed about 62 degrees, and the max- 
