158 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 5. 
VINES NOT FRUITFUL. 
“A Constant Subscriber would feel greatly obliged if 
you could give him some information concerning his Vines 
not fruiting under the following treatment. The house in 
question was set to work the 1st of February, 1855, with 
as small a fire as possible for the first few days, when I 
gradually raised the glass up to 40°, and from that to 45°, 
by which time the buds began swelling, and looked very 
promising, and I then raised the house from 45° to 50°, 
which was about the heat I kept them till they had fully 
put forth their buds, which they did, with constant syringing, 
very satisfactorily, as far as that went. The wood they are 
now' making is very strong, short-jointed, and remarkably 
clean. Not an insect is upon them, that I am aware of, and 
they are more healthy than they ever were before. Of fruit, 
however, they showed none, save a few poor, weak bunches. 
At the time they ought to have come into bloom they wired, 
and went completely off. The house was then kept about 50° 
to 55° at night, and from 55° to G0° in the daytime, and, 
perhaps, a trifle more when the sun was upon it. The 
border was covered, a few days before the house was put to 
work, with a gentle fermenting material from the stable- 
door, which kept all frost out, and I thought would greatly 
help the Vines, as there always seemed a nice warmth in 
the border. The house is heated with flues, back and front. 
I forced the same house last year in January, and had a 
nice crop under the same treatment as above alluded to; 
being the first year I had the pleasure of so doing, as I did 
not enter the service of my employer until October, 1853. 
The house in question was set to work, I think, late in 1852 ; 
so in 1853, in February, it had set its fruit, I believe a good 
crop, when, through some neglect of the gardener, the frost 
was allowed to enter the house, and destroy the whole crop, 
cutting the Vines, of course, at the same time. They then 
made their second growth, and were again neglected, being 
allowed to grow the whole of the summer of 1853 without 
having one lateral or tendril stopped in any way; so that 
the house in question, when I entered into my present 
situation, in October, 1853, was a complete forest. But the 
house is improving, as far as strength goes, since I have 
been here to a very great extent. I have manured the 
border, and forked it over, and done all that I could to 
render it all the benefit I thought was necessary. I should 
feel greatly obliged if you can give me any reason for not 
having any fruit this year; or whether it is through any 
mismanagement of mine ; if so, I beg to be corrected ? ” 
I think it quite right to publish the enclosed letter in 
a prominent place. I do not see my way clearly to give 
a definite reply to the definite enquiry as to the cause of 
failure; but the subject may thus obtain general at¬ 
tention, and the opinions of others, backed by practice 
and experience, may tend to elucidate and remedy the 
evil, which has this season been frequently made a 
matter of complaint. 
The chief difficulty that presents itself to a solution 
of the question, is the previous fruitfulness of the Vines, 
even when submitted to unfortunate or ill-directed 
management, taken in connection with the present 
health of the foliage and the short-jointedness of the 
wood. Had the foliage been extra large, and the wood 
long jointed, a solution would at once have been pre¬ 
sented, in a suspected deep, rich, undrained border; in 
other w'ords, a border better supplied with organic 
matter saturated with moisture, than with organic 
matter within reach of atmospheric influence. An 
intimate friend of my own lately stated, that if a Vine 
produced fino foliage, it was the gardener’s fault if it 
did not yield a fine crop of fruit. Now, I have seen 
Vines with leaves like parasols, that frequently produced 
a few large punches, and these not at all remarkable for 
their flavour; while, in many other cases, the bunches, 
neither in size nor number, bore any proportion to the 
magnitude and luxuriance of tho foliage. In such cir¬ 
cumstances, the curling up, in other words, the tcndrilUny 
of the incipient bunches is a common occurrence. 
Contrary to all recognized rules respecting the con¬ 
tinued battle that must ever be waged between extra 
luxuriance on the one hand, and extra fruitfulness on 
the other, theidea has been gaining ground, that the Vine 
is such a rank feeder that it is impossible to make it too 
luxuriant. Grant that the roots are confined to a shallow, 
| well-drained border, twenty to twenty-four inches in depth, 
witli rubble below, and a drain at least two feet deeper in 
front, with cross drains, if the soil is naturally adhesive, 
then as much nourishment as such Vines can take in, 
! without repletion, will not make them extra luxuriant; 
in other words, will not present an amount of growth 
which cannot be fully ripened and matured. But give 
the roots of Vines free pasturage in a border some three 
and a half feet deep, and let water remain among them 
I in a stagnant state, then the seeming luxuriant wood 
will he so ill-matured, that if extra attention is not 
given to ripening, and peculiar modes of culture 
adopted, forcing to any extent is almost sure to be 
attended with a deficient crop, and shanked, shrivelled, 
and tendrilled bunches. Were it not for the firm, short- 
jointed wood, I should be led to suppose that the depth 
of the roots, and a want of sufficient drainage, were a 
chief cause of failure in the present instance. 
I give utterance to this idea more particularly, be¬ 
cause, after the severe check which these Vines received 
in .1853, there would, ere long, be a tendency in the 
roots to strike deeper, in order to obtain the resources to 
keep up the luxuriance of the second growth that was 
made; and although that growth seemed to have been 
neglected, one thing is evident, that the principal shoots 
had been well exposed to the agency of light, or there 
would not have been the good crop in 1854; and one 
other deduction may be drawn, namely, that order, 
regularity, and neatness, may riot in extremes, in clear¬ 
ing away too fully all spray in the shape of small shoots 
and laterals, and thus so far curtailing root action. 
The principle here involved, and its timely application 
have, however, previously received a fair amount of 
elucidation. It is perfectly possible that the crop in 
1854, and the extra luxuriance now, may be the result 
of the mishap and the comparative neglect in 1853. 
Perhaps, also, the nice crop in 1854 had been too 
heavy a one, and the Vine had been too severely ex¬ 
hausted of its fructifying powers, and having learned a 
bad lesson in 1853, might have a desire to repeat the 
experiment, and have a season of making up, as it were, 
in 1855. I have sometimes noticed, that on this ex¬ 
hausting principle, a plant allowed to produce too freely 
one year, produced little or nothing the next. A Vine, 
however, all right at the roots, will produce prodigious 
crops year after year continuously, even though the 
learned continue prophesying destruction and ruin. 
I I do not mean to say that this would be the reason in 
I tho present instance, but it might operate as an auxili- 
) ary, if other circumstances were unfavourable. 
Most gardeners would consider the temperature low 
enough. When nearing the flowering period, from 55° 
j to 60° would be preferred at night, and from (10° to 70° 
j during the day, with a rise of 5° to 10° for bright sun¬ 
shine. In the case of Muscats, most people would 
like from 00° to 05°, and even more at night, and a 
proportionate riso during the day. I have set even 
Muscats very well indeed in an average temperature for 
several hours at night, from 55° to (i(J° ; but most of 
our best gardeners prefer a few degrees more. I do not 
attribute tho temperature used as any cause whatever of 
the disappointment, though I believe it to be one cause 
of the vigour of growth, and the freedom of tho plants 
from insects. Were this low temperature at night still 
moro in vogue, there would be less of sulphur and 
tobacco required in gardens. I am quite convinced that 
this tendrilling of bunches has often been produced 
from a different cause,—a too high a temperature,—and 
more especially when tho border was not sufficiently pro¬ 
tected to secure root action simultaneously with the j 
