4 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, AraiL 5, 1859. 
months of autumn. If the former, then it will he ad¬ 
visable to assist your Vines with heat now, and to give 
that heat whenever it is necessary, until the fruit is per¬ 
fected, and the wood is ripened. But, in the latter case, 
and with Vines just breaking their buds in the beginning 
of April, or the last days of March, and the great object 
is a good late crop, procured with the gi’eatest economy 
as respects fuel and attendance, then we would do what we 
could to keep the Vines back for two or three weeks, 
instead ^)f accelerating their progress. This could easily 
be done, by keeping them cool, by means of plenty of air 
on, night and day, unless when the weather was cold and 
inclined to be frosty. The buds, or rather young shoots, 
would thus lengthen very slowly, but come stubby and 
strong. Until they are from three to four inches long, 
and showing the fruit boldly, they will not take any harm 
in a lowish temperature—say from 40° to 45°, and 50° at 
night, and a rise of from 5° "to 10° and 15° from sunshine. 
Vines thus treated will be more hardy than those coddled 
with lire heat; and they will be safe enough, if at that 
early period the thermometer should, for short intervals, 
even get a little below 40°. The advantage of this keeping 
back, instead of forwarding, chiefly is, that you get the 
natural heat of the season to do for your Vines what fire 
heat must do, if you commence earlier ; and the powerful 
sun of May and June would give as much heat as you 
required, even when the Vines were in bloom. When 
Vines are thus left, as it were, chiefly to themselves, they 
will want little assistance from the furnace, except when 
they are in bloom and setting, in very cold nights and in 
continued very cold, dull, damp days ; and then, again, to 
dry the atmosphere in the house in the autumn, so as to 
prevent damping. 
But we presume you are anxious to give your Vine? a 
help ; and, therefore, in answer to your second question, 
as to temperature, we would advise you, likewise, to 
regulate that according to circumstances. Supposing the 
buds arc nicely broken, we would keep the house, in a 
fine night, at 55°; in a cold night, from 50° to 55°. If the 
next day were sunny, we woidd give a little air early, and 
let the house rise from 65° to 75°. If the day were cold 
and stormy, we should be satisfied if the house rose from 
55° to 60°. By the time the shoots were from tw r o to three 
inches long, we would gradually raise the night tempera¬ 
ture from 55° to 60°. When the shoots grow on, and the 
bunches showed freely, we would make 60° the average. 
As the bunches lengthened, we would increase to 65°; 
and just as they began to open the first flowers, we would 
increase again, gradually, from 65° to 70°, for all common 
Vines : if Muscats, we should not object to a few degrees 
more. As soon as the berries were fairty set, and growing 
freely, and the blooming all over, we like the house to 
become gradually cooler again ; getting back to 65° and 
60°, at night, as our average. It will thus be seen, that 
we like the highest temperature at night when the Vines 
are in bloom. Now, these figures are mentioned as a 
guide; but in a very warm night we should not mind a . 
few degrees more; and in a very cold night we should ! 
rather have the house fall 5°, in preference to making very j 
strong fir. s. No check should be given by sudden great 
depressions, or even very high temperatures, until the 
fruit is ripe. In all these changes, early air-giving is 
important. If coals are no object, a little may be left on 
all night. The temperature, even in cold dull weather, 
should always be a little higher during the day than it is 
at night. In a period of dull weather, the temperature at 
night should be below rather than above the average. 
Caution should be taken not to lengthen the shoots, by 
extra heat, when growth cannot be consolidated by light. 
Hence, again, air being given early to prevent the accu- 
nmlation of heated moist air near the top of the house, a 
gradual raising of the temperature by sun heat, from 5° 
to 10°, 15°, and even 20°, will be beneficial rather than 
otherwise. We prefer, also, shutting in a part of that 
heat early in the afternoon, instead of leaving the sashes 
long open, and using extra fuel instead. Of course, when 
the house would not fall much below 60° at night, after 
the fruit was swelling, we would use no fire then at all. 
This brings us to your first query:—“ Shall I com¬ 
mence by lighting the fire in the morning, or in the 
evening? Some neighbours say, ‘Light the fire in the 
morning, and give heat with light and air, allowing the 
fire to die out in the evening.’ Others say, ‘Light the fire 
in the evening, and make up for the night.’ ” From what 
has been adduced, we need not say much upon this, 
though it tends to confuse many beginners. The friends 
who advise you to light a fire in the morning as the rule 
of action, have, no doubt, got their minds convinced of 
one principle—namely, that heat should be given in pro- 
i portion to light. You will observe, that that is kept in 
! view in speaking of the average temperatures in the last 
; paragraph. The best principle, like a good horse, may 
easily be over-ridden. Just let us test the rule by the 
; circumstances of the case. 
By the time this comes to your hands, your Vine-buds 
will be an inch or more in length. April may have its 
clouds and its storms ; but it also, generally, has its gentle 
zephyrs and a fair amount of sunshine. The nights, on 
the whole, are generally Colder than the days, and give a 
retarding influence to what the sun the day before might 
( have unduly excited. You get out in the morning, and 
perceive that, in a couple of hours or so, the sun-heat 
alone will raise your vinery as high in temperature as 
you could wish, even with plenty of air on. What would 
be the use, then, of lighting a fire to throw heat into 
your flue, when the sun would so economically give you 
more than you can appropriate? Continue this firing 
process for a week or so, and your shoots will lengthen 
and become more tender. A clear night comes—it is 
wrong in principle to put a fire on at night—and before 
morniug the tender points of the shoots with embryo 
fruit are blackened and destroyed ! Without this extra 
roasting during the day, the shoots might have been safe; 
because they would have been hardier, and also less for¬ 
ward. As a general rule, then, in the month of April, 
we would say, that a fire in such a vinery is more useful 
in the evening than in the morning, if so used that the 
night temperature is always considerably below the day 
temperature. This just prevents anything like stagnation 
or danger. Generally, in April and May, the nights are 
much colder than the days ; and the incipient branches 
are easily chilled, when well treated during the day. 
Circumstances, however, must regulate the rule. Here 
is an evening, after a sunny day, in which the outside 
thermometer is only a little lower than we wish our houes 
to be ; then little or no firing should be used. Here is 
another evening, stormy, and likely to be keen and frosty ; 
common prudence says, “ Put fire on.” Again: there is a 
beautiful sunshiny morning, the house is already high 
enough ; the sun is likely to shine the most of the day— 
why should we willingly add to the heat of his beams ? 
But there is a morning cold, and cloudy, and stormy, 
and the house is quite low euough, and likely to get 
lower, and there is little or no chance of sunshine; 
and the same prudence and common sense say, “ Light a 
moderate fire ; and even if the sun should come out in the 
after part of the day, you can only be enabled to give a 
little more air.” 
Keeping such circumstances in view, then, wo must 
say, that for assisting a late vinery iu April, the fires 
should generally be applied in the evening rather 
than the morning; but circumstances must decide. In 
such a vinery, there is one time when any fire used should 
be given in the morning. Id the autumn, when the fruit 
are l’ipe, and you wash to prevent damping, use a little fire 
in the morning, and air on all the time, and let the fire be 
reduced before the house is shut up. It is best then to 
give a little air, even at night; as, if the air is confined, 
the smallest extra heat will tend to throw r moisture up 
into it. As respects the other inquiries — 
