QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
519 
should have been sorry to have urged any objection prejudicial to its general 
adoption. Every person who has had hot house fires to attend in severe wea¬ 
ther, is well aware that a sufficiency of heat can never be kept up, especially un¬ 
der steam boilers, by gently pushing forward the fuel, after it is coked into the 
grate under the boiler, as described in the methods used with the Gas Furnace. 
Those who wish to have the Gas Furnace applied to their forciug houses, with a view 
to saving fuel and consuming the smoke, would do well in the first place by con¬ 
sulting any candid person who may have proved the thing, and inquire of him the 
best and readiest way to get up a good power of steam. I dare say they would 
be told, that, instead of gently pushing the coal forward to the boiler, it should 
be thrown into the fire with a shovel, and frequently stirred up with a strong- 
iron poker, so as to cause the flame to act as much as possible on the boiler; and 
while the poker is used, (which is essentially necessary for the quick generation 
of steam,) there will always be smoke, more or less, arising from the fire, which 
can never be destroyed by the use of Witty’s Patent Gas Furnace. 
A Constant Reader. 
Vines in Pots. —The numerous queries that have been inserted in your ex¬ 
cellent Register on the Cultivation of Vines in Pots, and the liberal manner in 
which they have been answered by Mr. Stafford, encourages me to put one 
or two others. Mr. S., in his first letter, says, “ I always renovate them, and 
have plants ten years of age, to all appearance as young as if they were one year 
old.” In your note, you say, “ that he puts the plants deeper in the pot each 
succeeding year. The whole of the old stem cannot be concealed by this, unless 
the plant be cut down yearly to two eyes. Mr. S. says, in his answer to Vigorni- 
ensis, p, 186, vol. I ., i: I never re-pot a plant, so long as it is inclined to produce 
fruit,” &c: What am I to understand by this ? What length does Mr. S. allow 
his vines to sun, and how short does he cut them in at the end of the season ? 
Does he spur or bring up a fresh shoot each year from the lowest bush ? Your 
correspondent, G. I. T., who enlightens every subject he treats, has in a great 
measure answered my queries, but not entirely. I will no longer intrude, except 
to request that yon, or some of your correspondents, would say where bone dust 
is to be procured ? I can get plants in the North. M. G. S. 
Vines in Pots. —It appears, at page 350, that some doubts exist as to the 
practicability of producing good Grapes in pots, on the part of Mr. Grey. I am 
not at all surprised to find that they are not generally well grown, for I have fre¬ 
quently seen vines growing in pots for years without producing a solitary bunch 
of Grapes. This I consider to be partly owing to the treatment; and I would 
solicit Mr. Grey to give them another trial, instead of altogether relinquishing 
the method. Should Mr. Grey have an opportunity of visiting Derbyshire dur¬ 
ing the next Spring, he will favour us by giving a call, either at Snelston or Wil 
lersley, and I doubt not but he will find from fourteen to twenty bunches upon a 
vine in a pot, on a system which is considered as an acquisition, since it adds 
further splendour to the desert. It is true, good grapes can be produced in pots, 
at a time when they cannot otherwise be had forced, and if they had nothing to 
recommend them besides being introduced into a room among other exotic 
plants, their novel and ornamental appearance, so early in Spring as April, (more 
so, if carried to table entire, as pot, plant, fruit, altogether,) they are an object 
not unworthy of notice, and will often vie with some of their flowery neighbours. 
But they are more than mere decorators, for in whatever I have had to do with 
them, I never found them fail to please. J. Smith. 
