220 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 5, 1858. 
would do little or no good next year. Fresh plants, 
therefore, would have to he secured. Or, suppose you 
got two fruiting plants, you might also procure from 
two to four young plants, cut them down to one hud 
from the base, place them in the pit along with the 
others, and shift from one pot to another until the 
roots filled the above-sized one ; giving every care to 
the young shoot ; doing everything to encourage 
strength by manure waterings ; exposing the foliage 
to light; allowing laterals to grow a little at first, to 
encourage strength and vigorous root action; and 
then, as autumn approaches, shortening the laterals 
gradually, and ultimately removing them; leaving 
nothing at last, about September, but the large leaves 
at every joint, which must remain, and be fully ex¬ 
posed to light, until they turn yellow ; by which time 
the wood will be firm and ripe : and the stronger the 
wood, the shorter jointed it is ; and the rounder and 
more prominent the eyes, the more secure will you 
be of a heavy crop of fruit. To meet such a continu¬ 
ous supply in such circumstances as yours, where little 
or no forcing can be given, a few plants from buds 
should be raised every year, by inserting each in small 
pots, in the spring, and giving them the benefit of a 
hotbed to start them. These, cut down the following 
spring, may be treated as the above, and then will 
fruit the third summer. Where there are plenty of 
means, buds inserted in heat in January and February 
may be so grown as to produce fruit in fifteen or more 
months ; but that you could not do. Y r ou will see, 
then, that the general system with Vines in pots is to 
grow one year, and fruit the next; and then expect 
little more from the plants. A box of similar size 
would be neither better nor worse than a pot; but if 
your box were three or four times the size of the pot, 
then the Vines in them, b} r not taking an extra heavy 
crop, would produce every year; as there would be 
plenty of sustenance to make wood, as well as to ripen 
the Grapes. 
We would not wish to damp your enthusiasm at all 
in the matter of growing Grapes in pots ; but we think 
the following is worthy of your consideration :—Some 
time ago we received thanks from a gentleman for 
giving advice as to getting Grapes in a pit similar to 
yours, only it was three or four feet longer, and deep 
enough to have head-room inside, if desired: though, 
in winter, a moveable platform, in a number of pieces, 
furnished the opportunity for placing bedding plants 
as near the glass as was desirable. He wished to have 
G- rapes to come in without forcing, or that could be 
forced if he chose to apply the heat of a small flue 
to forward things in early spring. The width of the 
pit was six feet — a little more than yours, yet too 
short for Vines to grow upright against the rafters. 
A space of three feet in width was shut off by a four- 
inch wall, with a nine-inch pier in the centre of each 
end of the house. Holes were left near the base of 
the wall to secure drainage ; the bottom inside being 
paved like the floor of the pit. Along the bottom of 
these little tliree-feet-wide pits was about a foot of 
open rouble, finished with fine clean gravel; and on 
that were placed two feet of sweet fibry brown loam, 
sprinkled with a little leaf mould and brick rubbish; 
and each pit having about a bushel of charcoal, and 
three quarters of a bushel of decayed broken bones, 
in rather large pieces : all being well mixed, without 
breaking down the lumps of the loam in any great 
degree. When this was placed in the pit, there was 
plenty of room left for future top-dressings ; and some 
boards being placed over it, plants were set on them 
that required little water in winter. The pit being 
used merely for keeping the plants in winter, the 
i average night temperature from fire-heat never ex¬ 
ceeding 45°; and thus there being no danger of start¬ 
ing the Vines, they were planted, two at each end, in 
the month of November; and under such circum¬ 
stances, though the buds moved not, it was gratifying 
to find, on inspection, that the roots were running 
freely in the fresh fibry soil, though that was not moist, 
yet not dry. 
The reason why the Vines were thus planted in a 
bed inside each end of the pit, was the opportunity 
thus given for training the Vines on two wires, placed 
longitudinally along the roof. Two wires were quite 
sufficient for the four Vines ; inasmuch as it had. been 
determined on, that each Vine, when established, 
should be destitute of growth for the half of its 
length next the roots : in other words, that the stem 
of each Vine, next the roots, should be bare for seven 
or eight feet, and the other half be furnished with 
bearing-wood. So that the fruitful part of one Vine was 
trained along, or fastened to it—the bare part of the 
stem of the Vine, planted opposite to it at the oppo¬ 
site end ; besides the convenience of thus having two 
fruiting longitudinal lines in such a narrow width. 
Right or wrong, we fancied we could gain advantages 
from this length of bare stem in the house, which 
would have been denied to us, if each of the four 
Vines had only run half the length, and met in the 
middle of the house, instead of now passing each other. 
Various causes have prevented me closely studying, at 
one sitting, Mr. Beaton’s articles on the pruning, &c., 
of the Vine; and, therefore, I am doubtful whether 
the plan adopted would be in unison with his phyto- 
logical investigations; but as I would wish to be precise, 
I will mention the minutise of management of these 
Vines; and, as they were as nearly alike as possible, the 
outline of the modes adopted with one Vine will suffice. 
On examination, after planting, it was found to be 
pretty well ripened for a length of four feet. To that 
length it was pruned back. The joints were rather 
thickly set; and rather more than every alternate bud 
was cut off. There seemed to be a great number of 
small buds near the collar of the plant (the part whence 
root and stem proceed in opposite directions); and to 
the height of a foot or so, every bud that could be 
perceived, was picked out with the point of a penknife. 
As March got on, the buds broke strongly. The ter¬ 
minal bud and its nice shoot were encouraged. All the 
shoots from the other buds left, were stopped when 
three or four inches long. We might have removed 
all these buds at once ; but we imagined that a few 
strong leaves during the summer, would heln to in¬ 
crease the size and girth of the stem there, wliilst the 
main shoot from the terminal bud was growing freely, 
and increasing in length. That we may not have to 
come back to these buds and their shoots again, I may 
mention that little encouragement was given to laterals 
from them. As soon as buds could be detected in the 
axils of their leaves, they were picked out, so that as 
much organisable matter as possible should be stored 
in the stem. By August, some of these shoots were 
removed; and by the beginning of October, none were 
left. Thus, the length of the old stem was as bare of 
shoots as a walking-stick. Thanks to surface dressings, 
manure waterings, and frequent stirrings, the young 
shoot got to the end of the house before the end of 
autumn; and, by means of a little fire-heat in Septem¬ 
ber, was well ripened, with the exception of a couple of 
feet, or so, at its point; to which place it was cut back 
in the winter pruning. But we have not said anything 
of the treatment of this main shoot. As it grew, 
laterals were produced at each joint, and these were 
stopped when they had made two leaves, and were not 
permitted to grow long beyond that. Meanwhile, as 
the buds became prominent in the axils of the main 
leaves and these laterals, they were all picked out. 
until the half of the length of the house was reached 
