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same time protected from severe frost. Thus prepared, they are fit either for fruiting in the pots they are in, or for planting out in a border. If wanted for the former purpose, they may be cut back to 6 feet, including pot. Their roots should never be allowed to get dry during their season of rest, as is sometimes the case, nor should they have much water.

SEASON FOR PLANTING VINES.

I have planted vines at various seasons from the 1st of March till the beginning of September, and have found them all succeed well. The time of planting has often to be determined by circumstances. When When yearold vines have been procured, the first week in April is a very suitable season for planting, as vegetation is then becoming active. I will therefore suppose that at this date the soil has been wheeled into the house during dry weather, and carefully and equally levelled to the required height, making allowance for the subsiding that is sure to take place in the case of soil containing so much organic matter. This allowance should not be less than 6 inches. Say then, that, before the vines are planted, the soil is exactly to the level that is desired when the border has settled down, there will thus be a margin left for 6 inches of soil to be laid on during the process of planting.

VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES.

While I have planted vines in nearly every possible way, and have found them all succeed well, at the same time there are some methods preferable to others, and I

can strongly recommend the following, from my own experience of it. It is probably in its details new, but it only requires to be described to commend itself to all who have any knowledge of such matters. I had a large house to plant, chiefly with Muscats, in April 1864. I had a stock of one-year-old plants in 8-inch pots by me; I cut the rods back to 4 feet in February, and allowed them to stand in a cold peach-house till the 13th of April, when the border was ready for their being planted. I shook all the earth from their roots, and spread them out on the soil of the border, one vine to each rafter, and 6 feet apart, covered the roots with 6 inches of soil, and gave the whole a good watering with water at a temperature of 150°, and covered the surface with an inch of dry soil, to prevent, to some extent, the escape of the heat communicated to the border by the warm water. The vines were just bursting their buds when planted, and instead of adopting the usual practice of stopping, or rubbing off all the buds but one or two, I allowed all to grow, and tied them carefully to the wires; by this means I had in some instances ten rods to one vine, all of which, during the season, ran to the top of the house, and partly down the back wall, a distance of 30 feet, and many of these rods were as strong as ever I had previously seen a single rod from a vine the first year it was planted. In January 1865, when they were cut down, the whole house was a perfect thicket of wood. I cut back all these vines to within a foot of the front sashes, and trained up two rods from each the following season, fruiting them in 1866; and I need not tell those who know that a plant makes roots in proportion to its leaves, that vines treated as I have described had an

enormous excess of roots formed in the border, as compared with others treated on the one rod and pinching system, and that the bearing-rods they made were in proportion to the extent and vigour of their roots in the soil. I measured one of them in December that, when planted in April, was not thicker than a writing-quill, and I found that it was 3 inches in circumference, and had ten rods perfectly ripe to the top of the rafters, a distance of 21 feet. If, instead of permanent vigour and productiveness, an immediate return were the object aimed at, I have no hesitation in saying that such a vine would have yielded 50 lb. of grapes the following

autumn.

In planting vines, some advocate the laying of a considerable length of the stem in the soil; I do not. I think it an evil, and that the vigour and extent of roots. that a vine will make depend, not on the length of stem laid in the soil, but on the spread of healthy foliage it can get fairly exposed to light and air. I have planted others in the following way: I cut back the plants to within one inch of the surface of the soil in the pot, allowed them to break and grow a yard of young wood, and then planted them so as to lay an inch of the young wood in the soil, when a tuft of roots starts from the junction of the old and new growths; but when there is any danger of fungi being in the soil, this plan should not be adopted. In the case of planting young vines struck from eyes the same year, the roots can sometimes be disentangled and laid out sufficiently, without reducing the ball; and when this can be done, it is best to let it be so, as, by that means, less of a check is given to the plant. In 1858 I planted a vinery on the 15th of May. This house is 110 feet long. I prepared 75 vines for it

in the following manner: I had as many pieces of thin turf cut as there were vines. The turf was in pieces 2 feet long and 18 inches broad. I laid five or six pieces of hazel rods longitudinally under each turf, and across their ends I tied another piece with bits of wire, thus forming sort of turf-trays. On these I laid 2 inches of soil; and after shaking out the vines, and pruning, and in some instances washing their roots, I laid them out on the surface of the soil, from one end of the turf, like the extended fingers of the hand, covering up with a layer of 3 inches of sharp soil. I placed them all, as close as the trays would admit, in the pit of an intermediate house, where they had a night temperature of 55°, and 65° to 70° during the day from sun-heat; tied each to a stake, gave the whole a good watering, and covered all the surface with moss.

This was done in March, and

when they were planted in May, the whole soil was a

mass of fine healthy roots.

and planted them with care.

We removed one at a time,

They gave no indications

of having received the slightest check. Twenty-four of these were Lady Downes and West's St Peter's. They were put one to each rafter, to form the permanent vines for the house. The others were chiefly Hamburgs, to be considered temporary, in as far as they were to bear a crop the next year, and then to be removed. One set of the latter was planted, one in the centre of each light, close to the front; the other set along the centre of the house. Their progress was all that could be desired; and the following year, 1859, the house produced over 400 bunches of grapes, without taking one from the permanent vines. The supernumeraries in the centre row were removed after the first crop, but some of those in the front row still remain. I may remark that out of

this house we cut black Hamburg grapes in August, and Lady Downes seedling grapes, perfectly plump and good, till April every year.

TREATMENT OF VINES FIRST YEAR AFTER PLANTING.

Where the ultimate object is to have vines brought as early as possible to a state that will bear what is termed early forcing-that is, to produce ripe grapes, say, in March or April-they should be planted in February, without waiting till they make young wood in the pots, and started with a night temperature of from 45° to 50°, rising with sun-heat 15° higher. Let the atmosphere of the house be kept moist by any of the appliances for that end, and let the canes be syringed twice daily with tepid water till the buds burst-after which, water in any other form than that of vapour should never touch them, unless, as sometimes happens in very dry summers, like that of 1868, the red-spider is more than usually prevalent, when it may be necessary to use the syringe, as directed under the head of "Red-Spider."

In the case of vines that are to be the permanent ones, every lateral and leaf they produce should be allowed to grow the first season; by this means a mass of roots will be formed in the border, that in their turn will send up fine strong fruiting-canes the second year. Those that are only the temporary ones, and that are to be fruited the second year, must have their laterals stopped at one leaf, and their leading shoots also stopped when they have grown 12 feet or so. This will plump their fruitbuds, and prepare them for fruiting the second year. As the season advances, and they get foliage developed, the temperature should rise, till in May it has reached 70°

C

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