264 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 27, 1858. 
even oftener, examined. From 80° to 90° maybe considered safe, 
but under 90°, rather than above it. No increased air giving, 
or watering, or even shading, will prevent this casualty from 
overheating the roots. The growing process is arrested, and, 
in self-defence, the plant puts forth an effort to perpetuate its 
kind by seed, and throws up its fruit-stalk. Dryness at the 
foot, in such weather as we have had this summer* would 
also cause the plants to fruit prematurely. This process is 
resorted to when it is desirable to start older plants ; but even 
that must be done in moderation, or the size of the fruit- 
stem and the fruit itself will suffer. Want of a sufficiency of 
nir, and giving it too late in very hot weather, will also have 
, a tendency to produce this result. A very dry temperature 
j and a dry atmosphere will act in a similar manner. It is not 
unlikely that more of your young plants will start, but, to 
prevent them as much as possible doing so, see that the heat 
at the roots is not too strong; give a little air early in fine 
weather, or leave a little on ail night, until autumn; keep a 
inoist atmosphere about the plants, by frequent syringing 
and placing water in every open place, in pans, to cause evapo- 
fation; and, in bright days, shade from sun, in the hottest 
hours, removing it before the sun leaves the plants, and dewing 
them gently from the syringe, and then shut up close ; though 
in an hour or two you may give a little air, if the evenings are 
warm. These modes of treatment will have a tendency to 
promote growth, and discourage fruiting; but if the stimulus 
has previously been given, and the fruit embryo started, 
nothing will stop its coming. 
Your idea of picking out the young fruit, in order that the 
plant may get lai’ger, and throw up again, and stronger, will 
not answer. All such plants fruit from the same head only 
once. Hence, to get a large fruit, you require a stout plant. 
Your cutting out the fruit would have no effect in causing 
another flower-stem to come; but whatever vigour was in 
your plant would be directed to throwing out one or several 
suckers from the stem, and one or more of these suckers might 
be left, and. either all then removed, and made separate plants, 
—making thus a fresh commencement,—or one or more might 
be left on the old stem, and thus get all the benefit possible 
from it. In either case, you must have fresh growth in fresh 
stems, or plants, before you have another show of fruit. 
What, then, should you do ? Well, if the shows are very 
small, and the stems slim, we would advise cutting them out, 
and using the plants as stools, to get suckers from,—if 
suckers or young plants are an object. If not, pitch them to 
the rubbisli-lieap at once. Rut if the flower-stems are as 
thick as a child’s little finger, and the heads show that there 
would be two or more rows of pips, and the roots are in 
tblcrable order, we should advise keeping them either in their 
pots until the fruit ripens, or, what in most cases would be 
better, turn them out into rough, fibry, fresh loam, that will 
take plenty of manure water without getting sodden; and if, 
after all, you do not get a specimen you like to place on the 
table, you will get a number of fruit that the housekeeper 
will be glad to get for fritters and preserving; and after all 
you will get suckers from these too, only a little later than 
from those deprived of their fruit. 
MUSCADINE VINES IN POTS IN A PINE STOVE. 
These (says A Lover of the Garden) are making long canes, 
but very weak, and the questions are, “ Shall I stop, or cut them 
part back to make them stronger; or, having only one house, 
| shall I turn them out against a south-west wall, twenty miles 
north of London ? ” The system of Vine-growing in general, 
and of growing in pots in particular, has lately received con¬ 
siderable attention. Your cutting back now can only be on 
the principle of better late than never. If your canes are 
rather stouter as they approach the top end, we would adviso 
doing little more than stopping them there, which will cause 
laterals to come, which, also, must be encouraged for a time, 
to add size to the stem. The next season your rod, though 
long, might be twisted round some stakes in the pot, so as to 
secure the best or upper end of the rod. This is, perhaps, 
the best makeshift in the circumstances, and even then with¬ 
out seeing your plants, we coidd not guarantee fruit next 
season, k our error has been in allowing the canes to be so 
j long and so weak. It you had nipped out the point of these 
weak shoots, when four or five feet in length, another leader 
wuold have been thrown out, and that you could have stopped 
when it had grown two feet or so, and let it proceed again. 
But the first stopping would cause laterals to come freely from 
the joints below, and these, if encouraged to grow for a time, 
would, as explained in a late article, give you near the pot as 
much girth of stem as the circumstunoes and other matters of 
culture would guarantee;—just on tlie same principle, that an 
Oak tree with a large head standing alone in a park, has a 
much larger trunk near the ground, than an Oak of the same 
age that has been drawn with many others in a thick w ood, 
with no room for side branches. We should imagine, from your 
description, that your canes have never been stopped, and are 
all along rather innocent of laterals. If, however, the top 
part of your cane is smaller, and scarcely any greener than 
the lower part, then you might take away a part of it, and 
thus encourage laterals nearer the pot; but the stopping and 
the encouraging of laterals should have been done earlier. 
As to turning the plants against a wall, that would be all 
very well towards autumn, for the thorough ripening of the 
wood ; but in your case you seem to be more concerned about 
growth, than maturation; and to encourage growth, we consider 
the Pine stove superior to the open wall. If you have any 
difficulty, however, in attending to the Vines properly in the 
pine stove,—such as syringing, watering, &c.,—then, as the 
Vines are a hardy kind, and the end of July and August are 
generally warm months, we have no doubt the Vines would do ! 
very well against such a wall. The shoots should be fastened ! 
close to it, and the pots prevented being over-heated, by a little 
litter placed in front of them, which will be better than plunging 
them all round, chiefly because they will derive more ad¬ 
vantage from the heat of the day, and will want water 
oftener, which should be of a rich manurial character, and 
frequently changed,—such as cowdung at one time, soot at 
another, guano, &c., if to be got. The great thing is, first 
to get strength of shoot, and then, as lately explained, secure 
its thorough maturation. 
VINES AND PINES TOGETHER. 
Before we could satisfactorily answer your ( A Lover of the 
Garden's) questions, we should require to know some¬ 
thing of the construction of your house. As a general rule, 
Vines in such houses will do best up the rafters, and should 
not be so thick as too greatly to shade the Pines. The two 
plants do best together in houses that are rather lofty, 
and have some amount of upright glasss in front. The 
Pines derive the benefit of this upright glass, and there 
is a greater amount of air between them and the Vines ; and 
if the back wall, at least at its highest part, is kept moderately 
white, there is a good amount of light reflected on the Pines 
below. If the houses are very low, and no front lights, it is 
more difficult to manage Vines properly on the rafters, 
though very fine Grapes, and Pines too, are thus produced. In 
such houses, with the front wall little above the ground level 
(say eighteen inches), and the back wall eight or nine feet, Vines 
would do very well on the back wall, above the height of the 
Pines, if there was nothing on the rafters to intercept the light 
from them. In a Pine house, as generally constructed, unless 
the Vines were some five or six feet apart up the glass, it 
would be little use having Vines on the back wall also, as they 
would not get the requisite amount of sunlight. There would 
also be another objection, the difficulty of resting such Vines, 
though, in most cases, there might be means of taking out 
Vines planted at the back as well as those planted at the 
front. This taking out of the Vine, may be considered an 
essential to high success in either case. 
We once attended to Vines in lofty Pine stoves, that did re¬ 
markably well, and were nevertaken out. The Vines were planted j 
at the front of the house. When pruned, they were laid along 
there, quite close to the glass, and as far from the front flue as 
possible. The houses were heated by two flues, one at the 
front, and one at the back, having each a furnace to itself. 
After the Vine-wood was ripe, and when pruned, the front flue 
was not worked, until it was desirable to start the Vines. 
The back flue kept the house at an average of 50°. Tf a Pine 
started, it was moved to a warmer place. The front sashes 
could have easily been made to move, so as to place the Vines 
