MAY. 14] 
I beg briefly to state my practice. My first step was to take the plants 
intended for the following year’s fruiting in August, and shift them from 
12-inch pots into 18-inch, or nearly that size. Part were placed in 
18-inch square boxes, allowing them to grow on the rest of the season, by 
which time the pots, &c., were filled with roots. Nothing different from 
the ordinary routine of forcing is practised, but we are scrupulously careful 
of the foliage ; and when the fruit is cut, we allow the Vines to remain 
a few weeks in the house, keeping them free from insects, and the leaves 
clean and healthy by syringing; giving rich manure water to the 
roots. By these means, the wood (taking the Grapes to be all cut by 
the beginning of May) is well ripened, when by the middle of the month, 
the boxes are taken from the house, and placed against a south wall, or 
rather a low south paling. Here they remain till the end of August, 
when we lift them to a north wall for wintering. I never attempt to 
keep the tubs or pots dry during their wintering, as is recommended, but 
allow all the rain which falls on them to do so. By the end of October, 
we place the Vines in a dung pit, to swell their buds ; and in November, 
introduce them to their fruiting house, having in October pruned the 
wood back to good prominent eyes, without caring whether the spurs 
are one or three inches in length.. I find these Vines break much more 
freely the second year than the first, and produce more regular bunches, 
and much better swelled berries, ripening in March, or about a month 
earlier than in the first season. We remove a little of the surface soil, 
and dress with fresh compost when first placed in the fruiting house, 
and at the same time place a good thick turf under each pot; the roots 
soon protrude into this, and as the drainage from the pot keeps it moist, 
I have no doubt that the fruit obtains a great deal of support from 
the new active roots formed in the turf. The Vines generally make as 
clean wood and good foliage the second year as the first, and my Vines 
produce on an average 9 or 10 half-pound bunches of first-class Grapes 
from each Vine; and this, at the end of March, is no bad work. As 
the Vines cannot be removed from the house with safety before the 
middle or end of May, I give all the air I can after the Grapes are 
ripe, and after they are cut syringe the Vines daily to keep the foliage 
clean. The house is useful from the time the Grapes are cut to the 
end of May, for holding large vase Geraniums and other plants employed 
in the flower garden; and when the plants are all cleared out, makes 
a capital house for specimen Fuchsias, Balsams, and afterwards for 
Chrysanthemums, until required for the Vines again. I must here 
notice, that when removed from the house, the roots sent into the turf 
are cut clean away to the hole at the bottom of the pot, and that, when 
out of doors, manure water is given throughout the summer. The prac- 
tice for the third season is precisely as for the previous year. Generally 
speaking, the bunches are hardly so fine, but by pruning only to large 
plump buds, we are certain of a crop of good quality, which always colours 
well, and is free from shanking. We top dress, and place a turf or two 
again under the pots when placing the Vines in the fruiting house, as 
before, which is very soon filled with active roots. The Sweetwater, 
Muscadine, Chasselas Musqué, and Frontignan, are generally worn 
out by the third year, and are not worth further trial, but occasionally 
