8 
House for Forcing Vines in Pots' 
In respect to the treatment of the plants, I never throw them out o?i 
account of old age, I always renovate them, and have plants 10 years of 
age as perfectly young to all appearance as though they were raised last 
year in the pot. The size of the pots I grow them in, is 13 inches wide 
at the top, (inside measure) tapering to about half the width at the bot¬ 
tom, and about 15 inches deep. The soil I make use of is light rich 
vegetable mould. 
The sorts I would recommend are those naturally prolific, and not the 
large-bunch-bearing kinds ; all the most delicate sorts are more superior 
when grown in pots, to any I ever saw grown on the rafters; and I have 
often proved that a pot placed in the house on the first of January, and 
the same species trained up the rafter and subjected to ihe same heat, the 
former will ripen its fruit at least a month earli^ than the latter. 
After the Vines in the pots have done bearing, the pit might be filled 
with bark, and pine plants plunged in it, which might be allowed to 
remain until the Vines were again brought in, this should be some time 
before the rafters are cleared of fruit. 
It might be conjectured by some that the roof in the sketch here 
given, was much too flat, and were there no upright sashes in front, I 
should be of their opinion. I am no advocate for narrow steep houses, 
and am sorry there are so many constructed this way. I can call them 
little better than shells. It will be quite unnecessary for me to state 
the number of bunches, and weight of the fruit borne by each plant, 
but I am ready to prove that it is almost possible to produce a weight of 
fruit equal to the weight of earth the plant grows in. 
I am, &c. 
May iSthf 1831, Geo. Stafford. 
Note. —If a Vinery was built on this plan, and well managed, there is little doubt 
hut it would produce sufficient grapes for a small family nearly the whole of the 
year j for instance, suppose the first plants in pots were put in on the first of De¬ 
cember, these grapes would he ripe about the end of April, or beginning of Mayj 
a quantity more might be introduced on the first of February, to ripen about the 
latter end of Junej the half of those on the rafter should then be put in action, 
about the beginning of April, these would ripen in August^ and the other half of 
the rafter crop could be introduced by the middle of May, which would ripen in 
October j and in August more pots might be brought in, to ripen in January ; 
thus giving a complete succession of Grapes all the year round. 
We are about erecting a house for the purpose, and as soon as the results of our 
experiments are satisfactorily known, they shall be laid before our readers, for 
we are satisfied the contents of this Article are not mere theories. Mr Stafibrd 
is a practical gardener of the first order, and one of the best grape-growers we are 
acquainted with ; he furnishes Mr. Arkwright’s table with grapes nearly all the 
year round, and that, in super-abundance.—His plan of treating them in pots, is 
deserving the attention of every person who has a hot-house, or is likely to erect 
one: for it is an astonishing fact, that he can produce nearly as great a weight of 
fruit as the weight of the soil in which the plant grows; this has repeatedly come 
