House and Garden 
THE SULPHURIZING AND DIPPING OF THE VINES 
little 1 i q ti i d cl r o p s 
which bathe the stig- 
ma, and then by 
means of a small 
bellows, resembling 
those used for the 
purpose of sprinkling 
insect powder, they 
blow on the pollen; 
they work by sunlight 
as much as possible 
between nine o’clock 
in the morning and 
three o’clock in the 
afternoon, and for 
certain varieties, for 
example the Muscat 
d’ A1 eX a n d r i_e, they 
have to fertilize them 
three times daily for 
about ten days. By 
panying illustrations 
STAKING VINES IN POTS AND EXAMINING SLIPS 
stems in lime, they sprinkle the leaves, they 
inject periodically sulphur of carbon into the 
soil. One must be very particular, according 
to the ideas of M. Battanchon, to sulphurize 
the vines every eight days as soon as the tem¬ 
perature of the hothouses exceeds fifteen to 
eighteen degrees centigrade to prevent the 
oidium (a form of fungi) from developing. 
They inspect as well the vines for decay, for 
all unhealthy seeds should be removed imme¬ 
diately. 
Owing to these multitudinous and con¬ 
stant cares these stocks, which they arrange 
on ropes with shoots about every twenty 
centimetres, bud m the midst of winter after 
three weeks of preliminary heating, com¬ 
menced at eight degrees and augmented 
gradually to twelve degrees. They blossom 
in temperature between fifteen and eigh¬ 
teen degrees and 
ripen at the end of 
five months with a 
temperature not ex¬ 
ceeding twenty-five 
degrees centigrade. 
The principal spe¬ 
cies of white grapes 
cultivated in French 
hothouses are the 
Muscat d’Alexan- 
d r i e, the Golden 
Champion, Foster’s 
White, the Bicane, 
the Grad is'ka, the 
Trehbiano, the Buck- 
land, the St. jeannet, 
the Cannon Hall; as 
to black grapes, the 
Frankenthal,theGros 
means of the accom- 
follow the 
we can 
minute care received by these exotics both in 
order to combat the diseases that are as lia¬ 
ble to attack them in the hothouse as in the 
open air, and in order to obtain choice fruits. 
First they have careful examination of the 
slips, the staking of the vines in pots, the clip¬ 
ping, the pruning, the pinching and divers 
habitual operations. 
Then comes the successive clipping which 
is confided to women and which exacts great 
dexterity as well as attention. They examine 
the fruit bunch by bunch and with pointed 
scissors cut off the crowding grape which 
threatens to prevent the maturing of its 
neighbor. 
To fight against parasites they dip the 
BRUSHING NECTARINES AND WEIGHING BASKETS OF GRAPES 
8o 
