THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 27, 1860. 
119 
the addition of artificial heat renders it “a fruit-forcing-house.” 
We presume you mean placing your house against a wall. If 
so, you had better consult your landlord, as you cannot well do 
without a ridge-board fixed there. If you do'not place it against 
a wall, but make a fence or wall of boards, there is no necessity 
for mentioning such a thing, except that politeness is always 
pleasing. In either case your house may stand on wooden blocks 
placed on the surface of the soil some nine or twelve inches in 
depth, and two feet in length. On the top of these blocks place 
your sill; and a board hinged to the sill between each two blocks 
will furnish you with the means of ventilation at bottom ; and a 
similar one would do at top, or even at bottom at the back, if 
your plants were to be low. Oak blocks would last many years 
if seasoned, and the bottom side charred at least; and then you 
may take up the whole any day, and not leave even a hole 
behind you. 
The trees we would take up carefully and transplant, but 
without cutting the roots more than could not be avoided.] 
PRUNING- BLACK HAMBURGH and GOLDEN 
HAMBURGH VINES. 
In a small vinery I have 11 feet long, 9 feet wide, and with 
five rafters 10 feet long, are two Vines — the Black Ham- 
bux*gh and the Golden Hamburgh, both of which were planted 
December 9th, 185S, and both cut down to the place where they 
enter the house. The first summer each sent up a rod to the 
top of the house, which was stopped twice. The laterals were 
pinched as is recommended for the first season. These rods were 
cut down last spring to the point where the rafters join the 
upright sashes. The Black Hamburgh has made two beautiful 
rods this season, and the Golden Hamburgh would have done 
the same; but I had the misfortune when tying the shoots to 
break one of them off, so I have only one left. This latter 
measures now two inches in circumference. I will now inquire 
howl shall proceed to supply new wood, and how many bunches 
I may allow to remain on each Vine next year without injuring 
them for future seasons? I propose pruning on the “spur” 
system. 
Up No. 2 rafter are two rods of the Black Hamburgh now 
nicely ripened. I want one of these rods to furnish another 
shoot next season to train up No. 1 rafter. How many bunches 
of fruit may I allow to remain on the rod supplying both fruit 
and wood ? and how many on the one for fruit only ? How 
low shall I cut the rods from the top downwards ? and will 
there be any difference in the pruning of these two rods ? 
Now for the Golden Hamburgh. How low shall I cut the 
single rod to supply another shoot ? and how many bunches 
may I leave on so as not to exhaust the Vine ? I have been 
told to shorten this rod two feet from the top of the house, but 
I am afraid this will not be low enough to start the lower buds 
sufficiently, and make the Vine bear as fine fruit at the bottom as 
at the top. I shall carry another rod up No. 5 rafter, over the 
doorway the season after next, so as to have three rods the same 
as the Black Hamburgh. 
I intend planting another Black Hamburgh to train up No. 3 
rafter this autumn, and hope in this way to get my small vinery 
nicely furnished. I ought to mention that the east end is glass, 
the other joins an adjoining building. The house has a south 
aspect. , The border is composed of turfy loam, road scrapings, 
a little animal matter, and inch bones. It is well divided with 
pieces of brick, tiles, stones, &e.—A Subscriber to The Cot¬ 
tage Gardener. 
[There is no need for the slightest apology, your fetter is not a 
bit more full than it ought to be. You need be in no fear about 
breaking your rods for the full length if you bring them down 
and place them horizontally along the front of the house, so that 
the whole rod may bo on the same level. We do not think it 
would be prudent to keep these five rods at anything like their 
full length. If you did so you might have a good crop from 
them the first season, but they would most likely suffer in con¬ 
sequence always afterwards. The first idea that suggests itself is, 
that five rods are at least one too many in a length of eleven feet. 
The two Vines, therefore, would do. But supposing that you 
plant another Vine for rafter No. 3, and would thus have five 
rods in your house, this is how we would proceed if the Vines 
were ours. We would take one of the two rods which you now 
have up No. 2 rafter across at the bottom, and take it up No. 1 
rafter. If you did not wish foliage or fruit to be on the cross 
part between the bottom of the two rafters, we would pick out 
all the buds there. If any difference, we would select the 
strongest rod for this transposition; and, having done so, we 
would cut both rods down to less than half the length of the 
rafter, and for the first season we would be content with five or 
six bunches on each. Of course, all the shoots w T ould be stopped 
above the fruit, or at a similar distance, if the fruit was removed 
or did not show, only the leading end shoots from each rod 
would be allowed to grow right on the same as last year. No 
other rod would be needed from the base unless you meant to 
supply No. 3 rafter from this Vine. If so, the lowest bud and 
the shoot from it must also be allowed to grow unstopped, and 
the laterals managed as you propose. If you plant another Vine 
this will not be required on the spur system of management. We 
would treat the Golden Hamburgh the same way. Cut it down 
to less than half the length of the rafter, keep it in a horizontal 
position close to the bottom of the rafters until the buds had all 
broken and grown a little, and then select the lowest shoot for 
taking across to No. 5, leaving it unstopped, and treat the 
leading shoot the same. We would not take more than five 
bunches from this Vine. Next season, if all goes well, we would 
let these older rods occupy fully two-thirds of their rafters, and 
the new ones one-half, and take a proportionately heavier crop. 
The Vines may thus last a lifetime, and more ; but if heavily 
cropped at first, they will just be like a nice young colt that has 
had all energy driven out of him by being worked hard too 
early.] 
FORCING. 
{Continued from page 107.) 
Forcing Plants with Fermenting Material in Houses. 
—What has already been advanced has chiefly reference to having 
the fermenting matter sw’eet inside of a pit or house, and any 
kind outside the walls according to circumstances. There is 
hardly anything that is forced, however large the house, that 
w r ould object to a heap of such fermenting matter inside the house 
during the whole of the growing period. The foliage relishes 
such sweet fumes amazingly. One thing only must be parti¬ 
cularly attended to—either to leave on a little air at the top of 
the house all night, or to give a little before the sun strikes the 
house in the morning. For starting the buds of deciduous 
plants nothing is better ; and there is no necessity for the heap 
being sweetened at first, provided it gets sweet before the buds 
break. For such purposes, for such plants as Peaches, the 
manure should be half sweetened before being put in ; for Figs 
even less would do; for a vinery containing nothing but Vines 
wo would take the dung as it came from the stable-door, and 
water it and turn it, just as recommended for a heap out of doors. 
I once had the privilege of managing a large vinery on this prin¬ 
ciple. There was no end of the manure to be had. An immense 
heap was made in the middle of the house. For a week or ten 
days, if you went inside the house, you w r ould have to guard your 
mouth and nose; and so dense was the steam, that jou could 
scarcely see two yards before you. Whilst so managed I never 
saw an insect of any kind in the house. By several turnings the 
whole heap was as sweet as the most enthusiastic Cucumber- 
grower would have desired, before a bud broke—generally about 
five weeks after the fresh dung was put in. That heap wag 
frequently turned, and fresh additions now and then of nearly 
sweetened material added at the bottom until the berries began 
to colour, when the heap was allowed to dry on the surface, or 
perhaps made into a Mushroom-bed. By such means a house 
that had heating power to ripen Grapes in the beginning of 
September was made to ripen them in May. I found out after¬ 
wards, that in heating several places almost entirely with dung, 
and thus working it into small compass for carriage for the land, 
the proprietors escaped a great expense. In thus working the 
dung in heaps out of doors, so as to get into smaller compass for 
carriage, of course the heat thus given off was lost. Where, as 
in hunting establishments, &c., there is a vast quantity of such 
dung, and labour also is plentiful, almost anything may be forced 
by using it judiciously outside and inside. 
' Using Fire Heat. —In order to lessen labour to a great 
extent and to have a dry heat when necessary, heating by means 
of kilns, stoves, and flues come into operation. - All of these are 
more or less suited for the purpose contemplated ; the great evil 
connected with them all formerly being the excess of dry heat, 
the excessive heat near the heating medium, and the robbing the 
confined atmosphere in which the plants were growing of the 
