358 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 11, I860. 
about three feet from its next neighbour. I recollect detailing 
somewhere the construction of the border, but that I cannot 
find in this busy season. From memory only I would state, 
that the border outside where the roots were was very wide, and 
for some twenty-five feet of that width it was chambered and 
covered with flagstone. In that chamber a great proportion of 
the licating-pipes were placed, with slides to admit the heated 
air into the house at pleasure. As far as I recollect, thp pipes 
inside were chiefly used in the autumn to expel damp. If great 
success constitutes a criterion, then the fine crop in that very 
wide vinery spoke at once as to the usefulness of the plan for very 
early forcing epecially. It will bo seen that the roots could be 
excited even in advance of the stems. I should be glad to be 
corrected as to the above recollections. 
I also recollect that in the Gardener's Journal for the year 
1848, Mr. M'lntosli, gardener at Milton Abbey, gave a plan and 
a section of heating Yine and other borders by pipes in brick 
cement-troughs with small perforated pipes to admit the heat 
more easily through the soil of the border, and chiefly for the 
moans of getting rid of the covering when the Vines, &c., w r ere 
used for early forcing; the border instead being covered with 
wooden or felt shutters. Perhaps our correspondent “ G. H. A.” 
will give us the result of his contemplated practice. So far as 
our own limited practice goes with heating borders by flues or 
hot water, I should decidedly approve of the borders being heated 
from below, for very early forcing; for general Yine growing, 
although I would not discard it where I could get it, I should 
not consider it of equal importance. Mr. Fleming heated the 
border of an early vinery at Trentham from below very success¬ 
fully, the border being formed above an open chamber and arches, 
and the heat supplied from fermenting dung, &c.; the chamber 
being so open that not only the heat, but the ammonia, &c., from 
the dung found its way into the soil of the border. There is, 
however, much more labour attendant on this plan than in using 
either flues or hot water. If pipes and gutters are used in con¬ 
junction, the gutters through which the pipes pass might be 
supplied with manure water of various kinds, and thus fertilising 
steam and gases might be thrown off if deemed advisable. Care 
must be taken not to admit that into the house unless in a very 
sweet condition. In general, it will be easy to give moisture 
with the under-heating if deemed advisable. 
Where expense was no object I should prefer the heating-pipes 
for the border of an early vinery to be in a chamber, and that so 
deep as to permit of being entered ; and then, if kept moderately 
dry, a better place could not be found for Sea-kale, Mushrooms, 
and blanched salads in winter. For all practical purposes, how¬ 
ever, so far as heating the soil is concerned, for a border—say 
twelve or fifteen feet wide, or even less than that — I would 
just as soon have four 4-inch pipes at equal distances covered 
with six inches of rubble, a couple of inches of rough gravel, and 
two inches more of firm concrete, made of equal parts of fine 
gravel and rough sand, and half or part of quicklime, and enough 
of water to mix it, and lay it on smooth. On this a little rough 
lime rubbish might be put—say three or four inches, and then 
eighteen inches of good loam, mixed with a little lime rubbish 
and pieces of broken bones. This concrete would allow the heat 
to rise freely, and prevent much moisture escaping. It ought, 
therefore, to slope, to prevent water lodging above it, and a drain 
in front would, therefore, be necessary. A few round drain¬ 
pipes stuck on this concrete end upwards, and the upper end 
closed with a plug, would not only help to diifuse the heat through 
the soil, hut would enable you at onop to ascertain the state of 
the bottom of your soil as respects dryness, and enable you also 
easily to give moisture at the bottom if it were not wanted at the 
top. If the border were not more than five or six feet wide, two 
pipes would do. I should like this bottom heating to be inde¬ 
pendent altogether of the top heating, so that either top or 
bottom heat could be given at pleasure. The bottom heat would 
be chiefly required in early forcing, and in the spring of the year. 
A thermometer or two in the border would show the temperature 
there at once. An average temperature of 70° in the soil would, 
i n general, be enough. 
I have had it objected to this plan that there is a danger of 
drying the roots too much, and even of burning them. Of course, 
any advantage may be abused. A fire is a cheerful thing in 
winter, but that fire will burn our fingers off if we are silly enough 
to keep them in it. With the precautions mentioned, and common 
care, no such dangers need be apprehended. 
Some other friends ridicule the idea of heating a border from 
below whilst the top of the border is exposed to a severe frost— 
half of the roots’thus being in the tropics, and the other half in 
Greenland. But the bow of ridicule has many shafts, and one 
may be made to neutralise or counterbalance the other. The 
supposed conduct, no doubt, will be ridiculous enough. We 
would imagine a man to be extremely benevolent, who, in order 
to heat a greenhouse, used fires large and open enough to tell upon 
the atmosphere of the neighbourhood for miles. The man who 
heats his border from beneath is not likely to be so very careless 
as to let the frost get in on it at the surface. If circumstances 
prevent him taking a leaf out of Mr. Bailey’s book, and placing 
on the surface of the border before the end of autumn some six 
or nine inches of fern, he may manage a similar thickness of tree 
leaves and long litter. If not too great a demand upon the purse, 
he will take a step farther, and cover that fern-covering with 
shutters made of wood or asphalt; so that neither frost nor cold, 
rains nor melted snows, shall have the chance of getting to and 
chilling his excited roots. Better still if he can manage it, he 
would make the border into one or two shallow cold pits, and 
use glass partly as well as shutters for protection, and thus be at 
no loss for a place for winter and spring salading, and early crops 
of various things that did not root deeply and could all be cleared 
away, so that the sun might have the chance of shining on the 
border after the beginning of June. There is no end, however, 
to the uses that such glass-covered borders might be put to ; and 
then the glass removed would come in for main crops of Melons, 
&c., elsewhere in summer. 
I know that many are against, not only heating from below, 
but heating a border at all, even by fermenting matter or mere 
covering matter on the surface; the covering in the latter case 
being put on time enough to prevent the heat of the summer 
radiating and escaping : and their great argument is, that they 
have had as good and as early Grapes with the borders outside 
left to Nature, as ever they have seen whenever so much care and 
pains were taken to protect and heat from covering the surface. 
I fully admit the plea—I have seen suoh flue crops in plenty. 
But in almost every case that I have known where such success 
was at all uniform, the borders were not only deep, but the roots 
had got deep ; so that you might dig and trench the border with 
impunity—the nearest roots often not nearer than two feet and 
two feet and a half from the surface. In such circumstances it 
would require a tremendous frost to reach the roots; and, if well 
drained, a moderate downcome of rain will do no great harm. 
It was attempted to show in a late article that at such depth in 
common seasons the temperature does not fall very low ; and 
therefore the Yines do not receive the check from alternations of 
weather which they w r ould be more liable to if the roots were 
nearer the surface. I have seen Vines, however, so situated do 
well for years ; and then, in a winter and spring more cold and 
wet than ordinary, after showing well, have their bunches either 
tendril off into nothing, or lose the most of the berries from 
shanking and shrivelling, which even a good covering at the 
surface would have done much to prevent. In other cases, after 
fruiting well for a time, the roots being more inclined to descend 
than rise, the shoots at length got gross and long-jointed, and 
the Vines became more distinguished for fine growth than for 
fine well-flavoured fruit, even though that were anything but 
abundant. To have continuous heavy crops of good fruit, our 
own opinion is, that the roots must chiefly be from six to twenty 
inches from the surface ; and at that depth, I believe, all Vines 
will be apt to suffer if forced and the borders not protected. 
Instead of being natural, I consider it very unnatural to have the 
stems of a Vine ranging in a temperature of from 60° to 70°, and 
the roots trying to do their best in a temperature of from 28° to 
40°, or even lower. The protection of the heated covering also 
tends to keep the roots not far from the surface. 
To the argument that heat cannot be sent downwards, I do no 
more than bring practice, as previously detailed, in opposition to 
theory. But on all doubtful cases I should prefer a pro¬ 
tecting medium to keep heat from escaping, rather than a huge 
mass of fermenting material for sending heat downwards. In all 
cases the thermometer is a surer judge than anything w'e may 
premise, affirm, or think ; and however the heat is procured, 
whether saved, transmitted downwards, or sent upwards, I 
believe with my present lights that continuous success in early 
forcing will much depend on getting the roots excited into action 
as soon as, or, rather, sooner than the branches. 
I perceive there is one matter in our correspondent’s letter 
omitted—viz., the mode of training the Vines in the house up 
or down the rafter. That training 1 should regulate according to 
circumstances. If it were deemed advisable to have the border 
