UC-NRLF 25 117 LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. GIFT OK CALIFORNIA WINE MAKERS' CORPORATION Accession ^ Class ' CULTIVATION OF THE GKAPE VINE Lately published, price 5s., A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CULTURE OF THE PINE APPLE. BY DAVID THOMSON, Archerfield Gardens, N.B. " The name of the author, one of the very best gardeners in the British Islands, guarantees that this volume contains no directions that are not sound and tested by experience. He says that his object was to be as strictly practical as possible : he has attained his object, and we commend the work to any of our readers who need truthful information on pine-apple culture. One or two extracts will give an idea of its contents." The Journal of Horticulture. "Having read Mr Thomson's work through before attempting to say a word about it, we gladly pronounce it the best work extant upon this important subject. In size and style it is a companion work to his brother's on the vine, and, like that excellent book, it deals with work all through in a plain workmanlike way not a word wasted, not a secret held back, not a point forgotten. . . . The work now before us is destined to take its place on the shelf appropriated to the gems of horticultural literature." The Gardener's Magazine. "A cheap, concise, and complete directory for the guidance of pine-apple growers, the re- sult of long and eminently successful practical experience." The Farmer. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, Edinburgh and London. A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE GRAPE YINE BY WILLIAM THOMSON GARDENER TO HIS GRACE THE DCKE OF BUCCLEUCH, K.G., ETC. DALKEITH PARK, SCOTLAND FIFTH EDITION, ENLARGED WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXVII The Right of Translation is reserved S&397 T5 (LC. TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH AND QUEENSBERRY, K.G. ETC. TO WHOSE MUNIFICENT LIBERALITY AND PATRONAGE HORTICULTURE OWES SO MUCH, CJns Small alum* IS DEDICATED BY HIS GRACE'S MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR 87218 PEEFACE TO FIRST EDITION. IN common with most gardeners similarly situated, I am often applied to, by amateurs and others interested in vine-culture, for advice and instructions on various points connected therewith; and much of the substance of this Treatise has been sent, at different times and in detached portions, in reply to such applications ; and I may add that, in preparing it for publication in its present shape, I am but yielding to the urgent requests of not a few of those who profess to have reaped useful instruction from my private communications on the subject of which it treats. I have endeavoured as much as I could to avoid technicalities, and to be as brief as possible, consistent with making the subject in hand clear; and I have resisted the temptation of being led into lengthened physiological explanations of the facts I deal with. All I recommend I have in my own practice proved to be correct, and can do it with confidence. WM. THOMSON. August 1862. SECOND EDITION published September 1862. THIRD EDITION published April 1863. FOURTH EDITION published January 1865. PKEFACE TO FIFTH EDITION, IN preparing the present edition for the press, I have made such additions to the work as still further experi- ence has suggested, and have introduced a chapter on an aspect of vine-culture which of late has been much canvassed in the pages of the horticultural press. I am much gratified with the reception this little work on the Vine has met with, and much more so with the evidence that reaches me from all parts of the country, that hundreds of amateurs have by its aid alone become most successful grape-growers. Thus my chief object in writing it is realised. WM. THOMSON. DALKBITH PARK, June 22, 1867. CONTENTS. THE GRAPE VINE, ..... 1 SHAPE AND SIZE OF VINERY, .... 2 ATMOSPHERIC HEAT OF VINERY, .... 5 BOTTOM HEAT, ...... 7 VENTILATION, ...... 10 CONSTRUCTION OF VINERY, . . . .11 SUBSOIL AND DRAINAGE, . . . . .12 COVERINGS FOR BORDERS, . . . . .14 COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES, . . . .14 YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING, . . . .21 SEASON FOR PLANTING VINES, . . . .25 VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES, . . .26 TREATMENT OF VINES FIRST YEAR AFTER PLANTING, . 31 THE SECOND YEAR'S TREATMENT, . . . .32 THE FRUITING YEAR, . . . . .34 PRUNING VINES, ...... 38 GRAFTING AND INARCHING VINES, . . . .40 FRUITING GRAPE VINES IN POTS, . . . .41 SELECTION OF VINES, . . . . .43 RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE, . . .44 THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO, . . .50 RED SPIDER, . . . . . .54 Vlll CONTENTS. RUST ON GRAPES, . . . . . .56 MILDEW ON THE VINE, . . . . . 58 WARTS ON THE BACK OP THE LEAF, . . ' . 59 AIR-ROOTS ON THE VINES, , . . . 60 SCALDING, ...... 61 STOCKS FOR TENDER VINES, . . . . 61 PACKING GRAPES, ...... 63 KEEPING GRAPES AFTER THEY ARE RIPE, . . .63 AMATEUR'S VINERY CALENDAR, . . . .66 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES, . . . .68 OPEN-AIR CULTURE, ..... 76 CULTIVATION OF THE GKAPE VINE, THE GRAPE VINE. THIS well-known plant, the Vitis vinifera of the bota- nist, has, during the whole historic period of the world, occupied in many parts of the earth a large share of man's attention. Its origin can be pretty clearly traced to Asia, though it is now said to be growing wild in many parts of the south of Europe ; and what are sup- posed to be indigenous species or varieties are found in America. It was probably first introduced into Europe by the Eomans soon after the foundation of Eome. What may be termed a temperate climate is that most suitable for its cultivation. The soil it delights most in is a calcareous loam on a dry subsoil. The varieties of grape vines may be said to be endless. The French Government on one occasion made a collection of 1400 varieties in a nursery at the Luxemburg, and this was supposed to be only a moiety of those in cultivation in France alone. The cultivation of grapes has at the present day as- sumed an importance in this country which, fifty years 2 SHAPE AND SIZE OF VINERY. ago, no one could have contemplated ; partly owing to the increase of wealth, but chiefly in consequence of the duty being off glass, so that now a vinery has become a necessary adjunct to every villa residence, and is no longer confined to the walled-in gardens of the great of the land. And as these pages are principally intended for the guidance of the proprietors of the former, who are not supposed to employ scientific gardeners, I shall endeavour to make myself as plain and easily under- stood as possible ; and the directions I purpose giving will be founded on my own practice, from which I will also draw any illustrations I may think necessary as I proceed. SHAPE AND SIZE OF VINERY. These may be as various as the tastes and means of their proprietors, and all produce good grapes ; at the same time, there are forms and sizes which both philo- sophical deduction and experience have proved to be the best for given purposes. When one of these is the production of early grapes, there is no form of vinery so suitable as what is known as a "lean-to," with a due southern aspect, of which fig. 1 is a section ; the general construction and heating of which will be re- ferred to under those heads. Where the wish is to have late grapes by which I mean grapes ripe in the end of August, to hang till January or February the span-roofed form is the best and most economical, and should be placed with one end to the south and the other to the north. Fig. 2 is a section of the most elegant design of this description of vinery, though, from the nature of the SHAPE AND SIZE OF VINERY. FIG. 1. 4 SHAPE AND SIZE OF VINERY. FIG. 2. FIG. 3. ATMOSPHERIC HEAT OF VINERY. 5 top ventilation, it is much more expensive than fig. 3, which, for practical purposes, is equally good, the only difference being the more finished and sprightly appear- ance of the former as compared with the latter. ATMOSPHERIC HEAT OF VINERY. At the present day there is no question that the best means for supplying this is hot water in pipes 4 inches diameter. And let me here guard against the mistaken economy which is so often practised, of fixing too limited an extent of radiating surface to throw off a given amount of heat. This leads to the constant stir- ring of the fire to keep the water in the pipes as near the boiling point as possible, entailing a far greater expenditure of fuel than if there were a third more pipe in the house. And it is well known to gardeners that a given heat from a moderately heated surface is more congenial to vegetation than the same heat derived from a more limited but highly heated surface. My own experience goes to prove that, in a vinery where grapes are expected to be ripe in March or April, there should not be less than one superficial foot of radiating surface for every 16 cubic feet of air the house contains. One foot in length of 4-inch pipe presents about one superficial foot of radiating surface. This would be something like four rows of pipe round front and ends of a vinery 13 feet high at back, 2 feet in front, and 13 feet in width, which is the dimensions of the early vineries at Dalkeith Palace, where a steaming-tray and ventilator, as shown in figs. 4 and 5, are also used. The tray is admirably adapted for supplying moisture to the 6 ATMOSPHERIC HEAT OF VINERY. atmosphere of the house, and is so far self-acting and regulating, that when the pipes are at the greatest heat, and the house at the highest temperature, it gives off FIG. 4. STEAMING-TRAT. The water flows in the direction indicated by the arrow, ascending by the small pipe A into tray, and by gravitation along the tray from B to C, descend- ing again into main circulation by the other small pipe D. the greatest amount of moisture, and vice versd. The ventilator (fig. 5, page 11) is a plan I have devised and used during last winter (1861-62) for letting a constant stream of air into the house, which, before it escapes amongst the foliage of the vines, must of necessity become as hot as the atmosphere of the house. To this mode of admitting a constant stream of air previously heated into our early vinery, I attribute to some extent the extraordinary fine flavour of early grapes we began to cut on the 1st of January 1862. With regard to boilers, I think it unnecessary to say much; their name is legion, and many of them are good. My own observation has led me to prefer those that expose the greatest heat -absorbing surface, not under the fire, or by the side of it, but immediately over it, provided always that their construction is such that every portion of their heat-absorbing surface can be swept clear of soot and ashes daily; for if these are allowed to gather on the boiler, they will, as non-con- BOTTOM HEAT. 7 ductors of heat, destroy its heating power to the extent of the surface they cover. Cast-iron boilers, if properly constructed, are as safe, much cheaper, and last double the time of malleable-iron boilers. As a rule, it is much the safest plan to employ a respectable hot-water engineer to erect the heating apparatus,* subject to specifications drawn by some one practically acquainted with the degree of tempera- ture required, and the extent of pipe necessary to that end, the contractor to be bound to keep the whole in working order for one year after erection; and if at this date the boiler is sound, and the joints and valves all right, the inference is that they will continue so for many years. The pipes should be painted a dull black colour, as being that most suitable for radiating heat. BOTTOM HEAT. Gardeners have for many years felt that it was ex- ceedingly unnatural to place the branches of the vine in a high temperature, while the roots were in the cold soil of the border outside the house, and they have had recourse to various expedients to remedy this clearly recognised evil. Hot fermenting dung has been applied to the surface of the border, which did some good, more by its negative than its positive action, in so far as, if the heat from it did not penetrate the border to any depth, it at least, if applied in autumn, prevented the escape of the heat the border had derived from the sun during the summer. Wooden shutters, and in some instances glass, have been laid on the surface of the 8 BOTTOM HEAT. border to prevent the radiation of its natural heat. All these methods were well known to be very defective ; and it is only of late years that the heating of vine- borders from beneath by means of hot-water pipes, as shown in fig. 1, has placed the temperature of the roots as completely under the gardener's control as that of the branches has always been. Where the expense of stone pavement for covering the pipes is an objection to its use, the same end may be arrived at by first lay- ing the pipes on pieces of half-inch round iron, resting on a smooth stone surface, at intervals of 9 feet apart. These bits of iron will act as rollers, and enable the pipes to expand and contract without the risk of "draw- ing" the joints. The pipes should then be covered with a small brick drain full of loopholes on each side, taking care that none of the covering bricks rest on the pipes. From these loopholes hot-air drains should be run right and left with dry bricks, or by using common drain- tiles, on the top of which 6 inches of brickbats should be laid, and then the turf, as already recommended. The mere heating of the soil of the border by these appliances is not the only advantage that results. There is the additional and important one of the constant passage of air through the soil, forced up through it when heat expands that in the air-drains and interstices amongst the brickbats, and down through it when the air in the drains cools and contracts. When the difficulty of getting a boiler fixed at a sufficiently low level to heat the pipes for warming the border cannot be overcome, as must often be the case where the country is level and the drainage bad, the best substitute is, to make all the arrangements as to BOTTOM HEAT. 9 air-drains I have described as necessary when pipes are laid, and to connect these subsoil air-chambers with the atmosphere of the interior of the vinery by a series of drain-pipes along the front of the house near the hot- water pipes. Along the back wall of the vinery con- struct an underground air-drain, to be connected by a series of pipes, 4 inches in diameter, with the general underground air-chambers of the border. From this drain another series of pipes should be carried up the back wall some 7 or 8 feet, where they should have openings into the interior of the vinery; and if the flue from the boiler is made to run along the back wall in such a way as to heat the air in the upright air-drains, it will become lighter, and escape into the general at- mosphere of the house; while at the same time a current of air will pass down the front air-pipes already referred to, at a lower temperature than that escaping from the outlets in the back wall, but suffici- ently warm to be of great benefit to the roots of the vines. This arrangement has the additional advantage of keeping the air in the house in constant motion. There is also the possibility of making such arrange- ments in forming a vine -border as to admit of the application of dung-linings for warming the soil. It is, however, only necessary to have heat applied to the roots, as here described, in cases where grapes have to be forced early. If the vines are not started till the beginning of March they will do perfectly well without it, as is evident from everyday experience. VENTILATION. This is a point of great importance, and, in very early forcing, one of considerable difficulty; for it not unfre- quently happens that, after a severe frost at night, re- quiring hot pipes, the sun breaks forth in the morning, and raises the temperature of the vinery beyond a safe point, while at the same time the wind may be pierc- ingly cold. In such circumstances there is no alterna- tive but to open the top ventilators, when the hot air will rush out ; but at the same time another current will rush into the house, of air too cold to be admitted amongst the tender foliage of the vine with safety. To modify this evil, it is a good plan to have a light wooden frame made to fit the ventilating opening, and over this frame to tack a sheet of perforated zinc, or a double piece of Hawthorn's hexagonal netting. This will break up the rush of air into a great many small streams that will more readily mingle with the hot air of the house, and get so far heated before it reaches the foliage. It would be no safer to admit the cold air by the front ventilating-sashes to take the place of that mak- ing its exit by the top ones, unless some means were employed to take the chill off it before it is discharged into the body of the house. For this purpose I have designed what I have termed "The Hot- Air Ventilator" (fig. 5). This apparatus consists of a sheath of copper placed over a row of the front pipes. The diameter of this sheath is one inch more than the hot pipe it en- closes, consequently there is an open space of half an CONSTRUCTION OF VINERY. II inch all round the pipe inside the sheath. This cavity is fed with fresh air from the exterior of the house by a pipe 5 inches in diameter, which springs from FIG. 5. HOT-AIE VENTILATOR. the lower surface of the sheath, and passes through the front wall of the house to the external air. There is a valve in this feed-pipe to modify the supply of fresh air at pleasure. In the upper surface of the sheath is a double row of small holes, so that the moment the cold air comes into the hot chamber round the pipe, and gets hot, expanded, and lighter, it makes its exit through these holes into the general atmosphere of the house. In our early vineries last winter (1861-62), the valves were kept open constantly, both night and day, with great advantage to both fruit and foliage. CONSTRUCTION OF VINERY. As a rule, whether for early or late forcing, I prefer a good-sized house say, height of back wall, 15 feet; width of house, 15 feet; height of front sashes, 2 feet; length, 40 feet. A house of these dimensions has a good length of rafter, which enables the vines to carry 12 SUBSOIL AND DRAINAGE. a large extent of foliage, and become vigorous plants as compared with those confined to a short rafter; and the roof presents an angle of about 35 to the sun a very suitable one for a vinery; while the length of the rafter will be about 19 feet. If the roof is constructed of sashes and rafters, the sashes should be at least 5 feet wide, so as to afford space enough for training one vine- rod up under each rafter, and one in the centre of each sash : if all of astragals, as is sometimes the case, the rods may be regulated as to distance from each other at pleasure. The wires to which the vines are tied should not be nearer the glass than 16 inches, and should run at right angles with the rafters. When they are too close to the glass, as is often the case, the leaves come in contact with it, when they get killed, by being, as some say, scorched, but in reality frozen. These wires should be within 10 or 12 inches of each other. There is no pathway so suitable, either for a vinery or peach-house, as iron grating. In a house of the dimensions I have here indicated, and where grapes are to be ripe in April, there should not be less than 300 feet of 4 -inch pipe for surface or atmospheric heat, in addition to which there should be a steaming-tray, which gives off fully as much heat itself as one row of pipe. The front and ends of the house should rest either on pillars or arches, so as to give the roots free access to the outside as well as inside border. SUBSOIL AND DRAINAGE. Where the entire border is heated by hot-water pipes covered with Caithness pavement, as shown in fig. 1, SUBSOIL AND DRAINAGE. 13 any excess of water that may fall on the border will descend through the joints of the pavement to the chamber the pipes occupy, from which a drain should be laid down to remove it at once. But where bottom heat is not so applied, and where the subsoil is of a cold, wet character, it must be well drained, so as to prevent the rise of spring water, and to remove all the rain water that percolates through the border. This done, a layer of concrete, 4 inches in depth, should be laid over the whole surface of the intended bed of the bor- der, taking care that it has a slope of 1 inch in the foot towards the front, where there should be a good drain to draw off all water that finds its way to that point from the surface of the concrete, and from the drains under it. On the concrete, as well as on the pavement, when the latter is used, a layer of 4 inches of rough brick-rubbish should be spread, then a course of turf with the grassy side downwards, after which the com- post may be wheeled in to form the border. No rule can be laid down for width of borders ; I think it is ample if the width outside the house is the same as that inside. The depth inside should be 3 feet; im- mediately outside, in front of house, 2^ feet; and at the extremity, 2 feet. A border formed to these dimensions will have a considerable declination to- wards the south, which will enable it to throw off the winter rains better, and during summer it will receive more benefit from the sun's rays than when flatter. COVERINGS FOR BORDERS. This .is a matter of much importance, especially in the case of early-forced vines. Where the border is heated by hot-water pipes from beneath, all that is necessary is to lay some dry leaves, dry fern, or other litter, on the surface of the border to prevent radiation, and to cover it over with such as tarpaulins, oiled calico, wooden shutters, old hothouse lights, or straw thatch any material that will throw off the greater portion of the winter rains will answer the purpose. Where vines are not started till March, any advantage they might derive from a permanent covering would be more than counterbalanced by the loss of the sun's rays on the border during the day. In such a case, a covering of coarse cloth of some sort thrown over the border in the evening and removed in the morning would be bene- ficial till the warm nights of June set in. Grapes that ripen in autumn and have to be kept till spring are supposed to keep better by having the border the roots of the vines are in kept dry during the winter. I have, however, kept Lady Downes Grape hanging on the vine till May without a covering of any sort on the border. COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. As previously remarked, the soil the vine thrives best in is a fibry calcareous loam, taken, not more than 3 inches deep, from an old sheep or deer pasture. Such soil should consist of about 65 per cent sand, 30 per cent clay, and 5 per cent of chalk, with an abundance of vegetable fibre, giving it the character of what gardeners COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. 15 know as friable turfy loam. When the sand is in excess of what I have indicated, it may be termed sandy loam ; when the clay is in excess, clayey loam. The prepara- tion it should receive, and the ingredients that should be added to it, depend on its qualities in these respects. I will give an example of how it should be prepared, supposing it to be of the medium quality I have de- scribed, and others applicable to cases where either sand or clay may be in excess. It may not be improper that I should remark here, that I have known fine vineries erected, and every preparation made calculated to pro- duce good crops of grapes, till the question of going into the park for the proper description of loam had to be mooted, when the proprietor very naturally refused to allow the breaking-up of any of his old pasture, and the gardener had to have recourse to unsuitable soil, probably out of a plantation, where in every morsel of decaying wood there were the spores of fungi that were certain one day to destroy the vigour of his vines, and in many cases kill them altogether. * This is a difficulty that, with proper explanation to a reasonable employer, might be removed, and no harm done to the sheep or deer pasture. Say that in some spot most out of view and the soil suitable, the necessary quantity of turf was cut, and thrown with the grass side downwards, there to lie till the first dry frosty day, when it should be carted and stacked while in a frozen state. For every cart-load brought out of the park, let a load of old * June 22, 1867. A gentleman has just sent me a portion of the soil from the borders of four new vineries he has erected and planted this spring. It was taken from a turfy bank on which an old hedge grew, and I find it one mass of fungi, in such a state that it is impossible a vine or any other plant can thrive in it, caused, no doubt, by the decaying roots of the old hedge. 16 COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. rich garden-soil be laid down in its stead, be properly levelled, sown with a good cast of lawn-grass seeds and white clover, raked in, and have a roller run over it. If cattle are in the park at the time, a sheep-net can be run round it till it is green, when the net may be removed ; and, the sheep and deer being the judges, it will be by far the most esteemed portion of the park for many years. After this digression, let us suppose that the necessary quantity of suitable loam has been obtained, neither clay nor sand being In excess of what has been indicat- ed, and that it has been stacked for six months, so that the grass is dead and the whole mass dry. Then let it be cut down with a spade, and broken up with one of Park's five-tined forks in preference to the spade, and thrown into a ridge, taking care to have it kept so that a tarpaulin or some other cover can be thrown over it to keep it dry. To ten carts of this soil add two of lime- rubbish old plaster is preferable, as it contains hair, itself a good manure ; one cart of thoroughly charred wood, including any wood-ashes that may be amongst it ; one cart of fresh horse-droppings ; 4 cwt. of broken bones, about one inch square ; and, if to be had, 2 cwt. of horn-shavings may be added. Have the whole mass turned over several times, but always in dry, if possible frosty, weather, before it is wheeled in to form the bor- der. This I can guarantee, from my own experience, will form a safe and fruitful vine-border ; the addition of more manure might give stronger canes for a few seasons, but they would be much more liable to suffer from excess of wet in winter ; and when it is considered how easy it is to feed the roots of the vine with liquid COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. I/ manure at the seasons when it is most required, I can see no reason, but the opposite, in favour of making vine-borders so rich as some advocate. When the soil is what is termed clayey loam, I would add the same ingredients to it, with the addition of two cart-loads to the ten of burned clay, which acts as a mechanical dis- integrant, and keeps the particles of clay from getting too close together, and so preventing the entrance of air into the soil, or the percolation of water through it. Of burned clay, Dr Lindley, in his able work, ' The Theory and Practice of Horticulture/ speaks to this effect : " Why burned clay should be better than that sort of soil in its ordinary condition is sufficiently obvious its texture is changed. In its natural state it is so ad- hesive that air cannot get into it. It also offers great mechanical opposition to the passage of roots through its viscid mass, and hence it is exclusively inhabited by a coarse and worthless vegetation. Burning changes all this ; the particles of clay lose their adhesiveness, and this gives a new character to the soil, which offers freedom to the entrance of air and exit of water, and which crumbles readily away beneath the advancing roots of any race of plants. But that is not all the difference betwixt burned and unburned clay : the roots of plants which it previously contained were unable to decay, and are now by fire reduced to their saline con- stituents, and so enrich the soil ; and, moreover, the burned particles of clay acquire the power of absorbing ammonia from the air, and holding it within their pores till showers fall and wash it into the land, where it immediately acts as a nourishing food for plants." When the soil is what is termed light sandy loam B 18 COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. add all the ingredients except the burned clay, which need not necessarily be used, as the compost will be porous enough without it, though it will do no harm ; but add double the quantity of horse-droppings, bones, and horn-shavings. Leaf-mould, when thoroughly re- duced to a black earth, may with advantage be added to any compost for vines, but never in a half-decayed state, when it is certain to contain small pieces of decaying sapwood, impregnated with the spores of fungi that frequently enter into the roots of the vines, where they develop themselves, and destroy the plants suddenly. In confirmation of this I will cite two instances that have come under my own observation since the pub- lication of the second edition of this treatise. The one case was that of a Grizzly Frontignan in full crop, which died as suddenly as if cut over with a knife. The gentleman to whom it belonged had the vine taken up by the roots, and brought it to me for exa- mination. I discovered that before the vine had been planted it had been cut down and grown a second year in the pot, and that there was a small hole with a piece of decayed wood leading into the live wood of the stem where the vine had been cut over to the surface of the pot the second year it was grown. In through this rotten channel the fungus found a ready entrance, and the whole stem for several inches above this point was one mass of fungi ; the pores of the wood were completely filled with them, and death was the natural result. The other case was that of a Muscat vine that had received a wound in the stem, immediately under the COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. 19 surface of the soil, and dissection showed the same effects as in the former case. The border had been made up of soil taken out of a plantation, and con- tained beech-nuts, every one of which was found to be a mass of white fungi; they, however, do not appear able to penetrate the bark of the vine, but take ad- vantage of the smallest opening, as in the cases related. The fungi, besides destroying individual plants, have a bad effect on the general health of the whole, in as far as they exhaust the soil, and render it unfit for the growth of other plants. I would therefore guard against the smallest atom of any woody substance getting mixed with the soil of a vine-border, especially where bottom heat is to be applied, which at once brings the spores of the fungi into active life. Where the border is all outside the house, and no artificial heat of any sort applied, the wood will rot, spores and all, and do no harm. The general application of bottom heat to vine-borders gives this matter an im- portance it did not formerly possess. As many who are anxious to grow grapes may not be able to obtain access to a sheep or deer park to procure the loam I have described as most suitable for vines, I will here indicate a compost that will grow excellent grapes, and that is at the same time within the reach of all who possess a garden. Take of the ordinary garden-soil one-half the quantity re- quired to make up the border, lay it in sharp ridges to get a winter's frost, then procure one-fourth the quantity required of the parings of turf-edgings and the scourings of ditches, with the addition of a few barrow-loads of clay ; then get together all the clip- 20 COMPOSTS SUITABLE FOR VINES. pings of hedges, the prunings of fruit-trees, with any other refuse of a kindred nature ; build all into a heap and set fire to it, piling it round with the turf- parings and clay already referred to, till the whole forms a cone, with a fire in its centre. After it has burned for some days, and the whole has got tho- roughly hot through, and the wood all charred, ex- tinguish it by pouring on the hot mass the drainage of cow-byres, pigsties, or any similar liquid ; and while still in a hot state, mix it with the common garden- soil that has been for some time in ridges. To every ten loads of this compost add two of old lime-rubbish, one of horse-droppings, 4 cwt. of bones about an inch square, 2 cwt. horn-shavings, and a cart-load of cal- cined oyster-shells where they can be had. They may be calcined by being placed in the centre of the char- heap as it is being built. Let the whole be turned over more than once, but always in dry weather, and it will form an excellent compost for vines. For reasons that all gardeners understand, I would not make the whole width of the border at the time the vines are planted, but would make up, say, 6 feet inside the house, and the same width outside. This will be found ample for the roots of the vines to run in for the first year. The second year I would add 3 feet inside and 3 out, and at this rate annually till the allotted width is made up. In this way the com- post, instead of becoming sour from being trod upon, and watered while as yet no roots are in it, will be added just as the roots are ready for it ; and every gardener knows with what gusto vine-roots rush into fresh turfy loam as compared with that which is YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING. 21 sodden and sour ; and it is well known, also, that soil gets much more readily into this state when it is much in excess of the requirements of the plants that grow in it ; and it is frequently more convenient, where soil and labour are scarce, to make the borders in this way, than to have so much to do at once. YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING. There are various opinions as to the best way of preparing young vines for planting. I have used plants from layers ; from eyes, two, three, and even four years old ; from eyes, one year old ; and from eyes struck the year they were planted; and have found them all succeed, but would give a decided pre- ference to the two latter ; and especially to good, sound, well-ripened vines one year old from eyes, either home-grown or procured from some respectable nurseryman, who is careful about their names being correct who does not grow them in bottom heat, and as thick as they can stand, in dark houses, which is sometimes done. They may be struck in bottom heat ; but after they are shifted into the pot in which they are to be sold, they should have no bottom heat exceed- ing the atmospheric temperature of the house they are grown in ; for I have invariably observed that the soft forced roots vines make in bottom heat, such as they receive when plunged in hot tan, die off during the winter, and are of no service to the plants when planted the following spring ; and though the canes, in conse- quence of being forced on in this way, may look better than those grown without bottom heat, they are not so 22 YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING. in reality. Far better have a well-ripened though smaller cane, with a pot full of hard, fibry, active roots, that will survive the winter, and come early into action in the spring. My objection to the plants being crowded in dark houses, as they are often to be seen, is, that many of them get no direct light from the sun on their foliage ; and, though they may make good- sized canes, cannot be properly ripened, and become fit foundations for healthy fruitful vines. When vines are thus crowded during their season of growth, and are set outdoors, perhaps against a wall or hedge, to stand till sold, they are sure to receive permanent injury from even a moderate degree of frost, such as would not injure well-ripened canes. As a rule, it is injudicious to expose young or old vines, ripened in this country, to more than 10 of frost at any time. When the vines are to be struck from eyes, I have found it best to select the eyes from well-ripened wood, from a house where the grapes have been cut in June or July. I cut the wood right across, about half an inch on each side of the eye, and then take a small slice off the side of it, longitudinally, opposite the eye, making the cuts as clean as possible. I then have 4 -inch pots filled with light turfy loam, and a small portion of thoroughly decayed leaf-mould. When the pot is filled with this soil, I make a hole that would contain a walnut in the centre of it, which I fill up with fine white sand, and in the centre of the sand the eye is deposited, when a little of the compost is placed over it, and the whole receives a watering. I have found that cuttings form callus sooner in sand than in loam, and throw out more roots also. When thus YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING. 23 potted in January, they may for a time stand in any convenient corner of a peach-house or vinery just started. By the 1st of February they should be plunged in tan, or some other medium affording a bottom heat of 90, and placed as near the glass as possible. With an at- mospheric temperature of 55 at night, rising to 70 by day, the buds will soon appear above the soil. Contem- poraneously with the development of leaves, roots will be emitted all round the calloused edges of the bud into the soil. At this stage see that they have what water they require to keep the soil moderately moist. And to guard against the formation of what I will term strong bottom-heat roots, give the pots a shake with the hand, so as to leave a cavity all round them, from which any excess of heat may escape. When the plants have four leaves developed, raise them out of the plunging material they are in ; and though they will not make such a rapid growth as if left in the bottom heat, they will make a much safer one. The pots by this time will be getting pretty full of roots ; but on no account shift the plants into larger pots till they have begun to grow afresh after the stand they make, when the available nutriment in the bud is exhausted, and before the young roots and newly-developed leaves have begun to supply more. If shifted before this second growth begins, they frequently stand still for a month, and often end in premature ripening at the neck, and refusing to start into a healthy second growth at all. The size of pot they should be shifted into depends on what they are intended for. If for planting out, an 8-inch pot is sufficient ; if for fruiting in pots the following season, the size should not be less than 8 24 YOUNG VINES FOR PLANTING. inches or more than 18 inches. I have found a com- post the same as that recommended for the borders answer admirably for vines in pots. When potted, they should for a few days be shaded, as the roots must suffer more or less in the process, and are not prepared to supply the foliage with the needful sap to resist the demands made upon it by a powerful sun. In March or April the temperature and general treatment as to airing should be the same as what will be recommended for the first year they are planted out in the border. Whether vines are intended for fruiting in pots, or planting out the following season, as soon as they are 6 feet high they should be cut back to 1 foot, when they wi]l start afresh and make much finer and more fruitful canes than if allowed to grow on ; the laterals, as they appear, should be stopped at one joint. These laterals will break again, and should be pinched, so as to leave another joint. The best position for such vines to grow in is in the full blaze of the sun. I have grown them trained up under the rafters of a pine-pit, and found them prove very fruitful, and also against the back wall of a pine-stove ; but they will do well in any situation where they can have vinery or pine-stove heat, be regularly watered, have the full influence of the sun, and be kept free from red spider. When the canes become brown, and all the symptoms of ripening show themselves, the whole of the lateral branches may be cut off, care being taken not to injure the leaves that spring from the main stem, as their office is to fill out the buds that are to show the young bunches of fruit next season. When fairly ripened say in September and the leaves are getting an autumn tint, they may SEASON FOR PLANTING VINES. 25 be removed and nailed up against a wall, provision being made that they do not suffer from want of water. From this position they should, on the approach of frost, be removed to an airy shed, peach-house at rest, or some other shelter, where they can be kept cool, and at the 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 5 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 July, and have found them all succeed well. The time of planting has often to be determined by circumstances. For my own part, I . think a mean betwixt the dates I have named the most suitable say the beginning of April. I will therefore suppose that at this date the soil has been wheeled into the house during dry weather, and care- fully 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 it is desired when the border has settled down, there will thus be a mar- gin 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. There is, however, one which I do not include in the above, that to my own knowledge has been practised, and which I describe that it may be avoided. In doing so I will give one illustration of it that came immediately under my observation. Four years ago, a gentleman, who is a keen amateur gardener, whom I shall call A., erected a vinery ; made a good border ; purchased vines that had been grown in 5-inch pots ; made holes in his border sufficiently large to take in the balls as turned out of the pots ; filled in the soil round the balls ; and finished with a good watering. This was done in January. These vines, it seems, broke irregularly; for the canes were left some 5 feet long, made poor growths, and at the end of the season were anything but satisfactory year-olds. A/s partner in business, whom I shall call B., at this date made up his mind to erect a vinery also ; and, being acquainted with B., I was asked to give him some advice about the planting of his vines. They were procured at the same place as A/s. I agreed to plant them for him ; and, on the occasion of planting them, B. invited A. to see the operation, which took place early in March. I shook all the soil from the roots, and pruned off any decayed portions of them. I then spread them out equally over the surface of the bed prepared for them, laying three joints of the wood, as well as the roots, in VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 27 the soil, making at the same time an incision with the knife below each bud or joint, to induce the emission of roots ; placed a strong, hooked, wooden peg to keep the stem steady at the junction with the soil, and covered them, giving the whole surface a slight watering with tepid water through the rose. Their after-treatment was the same as I shall hereafter describe as suitable for vines in their circumstances. They made splendid canes to the top of the house by the autumn. While they were being planted, A. remarked that he and his man planted theirs differently, and described their way of doing it, as I have already done. I went and looked at A/s vines, and expressed doubts about their success. At the end of their second year's growth, which was the end of the first year of B/s, they were not half the strength. A. then asked me to do as I pleased with his, if I thought I could make them grow like B.'s. I had them taken up, and found the ball of roots almost as it was put into the hole. I had them disentangled and spread out, and the vines replanted, but to the present date they have not overtaken B/s, that started a year behind them. I can strongly recommend the following method of planting and treating young vines, from my own ex- perience of it in the past season. It is probably in its details new, but it only requires to be described to com- mend itself to all who have any knowledge of such mat- ters. I had a large house to plant, chiefly with Mus- cats, 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 28 VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 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 5 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 cov- ered 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 adopt- ing 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 have, during the season, run to the top of the house, and partly down the back wall, a distance of 30 feet, and many of these rods are as strong as ever I had previously seen a single rod from a vine the first year it was planted. At this date (6th January 1865) they are not yet cut down, and the whole house is a perfect thicket of wood. I will shortly cut back all these vines to within a foot of the front sashes, and train up two rods from each this season, for fruiting 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 will have an enormous excess of roots formed in the border, as compared with others treated on the one rod and pinch- ing system, and that the bearing-rods they will make this year will be in proportion to the extent and vigour of their roots in the soil. I have just measured one of them that, when planted in April, was not thicker than a writing-quill, and I find that it is now 3^ inches in circumference, and has ten rods perfectly ripe to the top VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 29 of the rafters, a distance of 21 feet. If, instead of per- manent vigour and productiveness, an immediate return were the object aimed at, I have no hesitation in saying that such a vine would yield 50 Ib. of grapes this autumn. In planting vines some are great advocates for laying a considerable length of the stem in the soil ; I am not. I thing it an evil, and that the vigour and extent of roots that a vine will make, depends, not on the length of stem laid in the soil, but on the extent 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 plant- ing young vines struck from eyes the same year, the roots can sometimes be disentangled and laid out suffi- ciently, without reducing the ball entirely ; 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 follow- ing 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 30 VARIOUS WAYS OF PLANTING VINES. 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 foots. We removed one at a time, and planted them with care. They gave no indi- cations 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 other fifty-one 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, with- out taking one from the permanent vines. The super- numeraries 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 April they should be planted in February, with- out waiting till they make young wood in the pots, and started with a night temperature of from 35 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 1864, the red spider is more than usually prevalent, when it may be necessary to use the syringe, as directed under the head of "Eed 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 10 feet or so. This will plump their fruit-buds, 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 by fire-heat at 32 THE SECOND YEARS TREATMENT. night, and it may be run up with sun to 85 or 90. In giving air, let it be at the top of the house in the first part of the day ; then, as the heat from the sun in- creases, admit a little at the front, but with great care in cold weather where there is no means such as I have previously described for heating it. As the season advances, say in August, give abundance of air in all directions. This will help to make the wood hard and brown ; but be careful of the foliage till it decays naturally. The diseases and attacks from insects, to which vines are liable, as well as the best means of preventing their ravages, will be treated of in subse- quent chapters. THE SECOND YEAR ? S TREATMENT. This begins with the cutting back of the vines, say in December ; and in the case of those that are not to bear fruit, they may be cut to within 3 feet of the bottom of the rafter ; those that are to fruit the second year may be left 8 feet long, and be allowed to bear eight bunches each, supposing them to have made canes l inches in circumference, and that the wood is well ripened and short jointed, with the buds or eyes prominent. This done, the whole wood and glass of the house inside should have a thorough good wash- ing, and the canes should be washed with soap and water with a brush, and painted over with a mixture composed of 2 oz. soft soap, 2 oz. flowers of sulphur, and 1 gill tobacco- water, to 2 quarts of water ; stir the whole together, and add clay sufficient to give it the consistency of paint, which will destroy any larvae of THE SECOND YEARS TREATMENT. 33 red spider or other insects that may be left on them. When painted let them be tied to the wires, and give the surface of the border a slight prick over with a fork, but beware of going so deep as to injure the roots. Cover the surface of the border with horse-droppings to the depth of 2 inches when they can be had : watering over them enriches the border and feeds the roots, pre- venting rapid radiation at same time. On the 1st of February they may have fire-heat applied, beginning as in the first year in regard to moisture and syringing. As soon as the buds are broke, increase the heat at night to 60, and by the time they have got some part of their foliage fairly expanded, increase it 5 more, running up 10 or 15 above this with sun-heat. The atmosphere should be kept sufficiently moist by sprink- ling the border and paths, if there is no steam-tray on the pipes ; but avoid syringing the pipes when they are hot, as this system raises a great cloud of steam for a few minutes, doing more harm than good. What the vine requires for its growth, with healthy foliage of good texture, is an atmosphere not arid, but certainly not steaming like that of a cucumber-frame. This year, the laterals that form on the young rods must be pinched at two leaves from the leading stems, and those laterals that start on the 3 feet that was left of last year's rod must have any bunches they show picked off, with the exception of one or two that may be left to prove the variety, and be stopped, say at the fifth joint, and tied to the wires. When the lead- ing shoot has gone half up the rafter, it may be stopped, and then allowed to start again, and not stopped more. The laterals below the middle of the house must also 34 THE FRUITING YEAR. be stopped every time they start beyond one joint. Vines started as early as these have been will be nearly ripe by the end of July, and at that date the laterals on the young wood that is to bear fruit the following year should be cut off close to the base of the stalk of the leaf that springs from the leading rod ; but this leaf itself should be carefully preserved, as it will still be of service in laying up sap to plump the fruit-bud for next year. The house may now have abundance of air night and day, till the leaves become yellow and fall off in September, when the laterals on the previous year's wood may be cut back to an eye that will be found at the base of the said lateral, where it springs from the parent stem. The leaves should all be cleared off now, the rods cut back to 8 feet, and any loose bark on the previous year's wood removed ; after which give them a good wash with tepid water and a little soap, and then paint with the same mixture as recommended for the previous year. At this season every part of the interior walls of the vinery should be washed with hot lime white-wash, with a little sulphur stirred in it, and all the woodwork and glass cleaned thoroughly with soap and water, well dashed into every corner. THE FRUITING YEAR. Vines prepared as has been recommended may be started on the 1st of January the third year. My practice with vines of this description is to collect as many oak leaves as will make a heap 3 feet deep on the vinery floor, where they soon become hot, and THE FRUITING YEAR. 35 give off a fine genial heat, which carries with it all the moisture required. If there are means of giving bottom heat, it should be applied so as to raise the temperature of the border where the roots are to 60. If this can be done, the heat from the hot leaves may be supplemented by the heating apparatus, so as to keep the atmosphere of the house at 50 by night, and 55 by day, rising 10 by sun-heat. With these appliances, and syringing with tepid water daily, the vines will soon begin to burst their buds ; and as soon as it can be observed that there are two shoots starting from one eye, the weakest should at once be rubbed off with the hand, and syringing discontinued. In its stead a small portion of the hot leaves may be forked over daily; this will afford all the atmo- spheric moisture necessary till after the fruit is set. The moment the bunches can be distinguished, the heat should be raised 5 at night and the same during the day ; and by the time the shoots have run out 3 inches, 5 more ; and by a daily rise from this point, till, in the case of Hamburgs and the free -setting class, it reaches 70 at night, when the grapes are in bloom. Muscats set best at 75 at night, and 80 of fire-heat during the day, and up to 90 with sun. My own practice is to take off all the bunches that show on a shoot but one, and to stop the lateral on which it grows two leaves or joints beyond the bunch, and to pinch all sub-laterals at the first joint, and to repinch them without leaving an additional joint. I consider this gives ample foliage for perfecting the fruit and keeping up the vigour of the vine ; and it will be found to be as much as can be properly exposed to 36 THE FRUITING YEAR. light, supposing the leading stems of the vines to be 2-| feet (3 feet is not too much) apart, which is as close as ever they should be. When the grapes are set, it is necessary to determine the number of bunches to be left on such vines. My own practice is to leave eight bunches on each rod, supposing such bunches to average, when ripe, 1^ Ib. each : of course, the largest and best bunches ought to be left, and as equally all over the house as possible. None should, however, be left on the leading shoot, which should not be stopped till it reaches to the top of the house. It is difficult to give precise directions for thinning the berries ; it must, however, be done as early as possible, after the grapes are set, in the case of the free setters ; but in the case of Muscats it is best to wait till it becomes obvious which of the berries are properly set and taking the lead. Care must be taken not to injure the berries that are left in any way, either by touching them with the hand or scissors. Experience alone can teach how thin they should be ; they should be so thin that every berry is able to swell perfectly without being jammed, and at the same time the bunch should be so firm that, when cut and laid in a horizontal position on the dish, it preserves the same shape as when hanging vertically from the branch. This I consider the perfection of thinning, and can only be attained by ex- perience and a knowledge of the size of the various sorts of grapes, as well as of given vines of the same sort. I consider 70 of fire-heat sufficient for .grapes as a night temperature, except for Muscats when in bloom. I may here remark, that in March last I had a house of this vine in bloom, and during the whole month the sun THE FRUITING YEAR. 37 was only visible for about three hours, with rain nearly every day. I kept the fire-heat 75 by night and 85 by day, and every bunch in the house set like Ham- burgs. No moisture was given, while they were in bloom, in any form ; and at that stage, if a bunch received a shake in any way, a complete cloud of pollen flew from it. This is the whole secret of setting Mus- cats. When they are set, however, I let them fall back to 70 at night, and give a steady but not excessive moisture to the air, letting them rise with air on to 90 during the day with sun-heat. I make it a rule, except during severe frost, to keep the back ventilators open an inch, and the front ones half an inch, during the night. This gives a supply of fresh air, and keeps the foliage healthy and of good substance, and more able to resist the scorching effects of the sun when it makes its ap- pearance. On the other hand, a thin, almost trans- parent foliage, grown in a close, over-moist atmosphere, though it may have expanded to a large size, gets brown and destroyed by a few days of bright sunshine in May. With regard to watering the inside border I have as yet said nothing, and will now remark that, if the bottom drainage is good, it may get a thorough soak- ing of soft tepid water when the vines are started, another after the grapes are set, a third when they are taking their second swelling, and a fourth when they begin to colour ; the three latter may be liquid manure. These should be no surface waterings, but thorough drenchings ; and if the season is very dry, like that of 1864, the borders inside and out should be mulched with rotten dung. In no case tread on the border when 38 PRUNING VINES. it is newly watered. I ought to have remarked that the leaves placed on the floor of the vinery may be removed as soon as the grapes are set, and before the second watering. The moment the first berry in the house begins to colour, the supply of air should be more liberal both by night and day, and the moisture less, where high flavour is aimed at. When the grapes are all cut, it is too often the case that the vines no longer receive that attention which they ought till their foliage ripens and falls off in the autumn. Immediately after the grapes are cut, the vines should get a good syring- ing with tepid water to wash off any spider that may be on their foliage, or any dust that may have settled on it The border should have water enough to keep it moist the inside border, I mean; for it rarely occurs that, under any circumstances, an outside vine-border requires water supplied artificially. In very hot sum- mers the mulching of short dung will keep it suffi- ciently moist. All second growths the vines may make should be pinched off at once. If this matter is not attended to, and these after-growths are allowed to go on, the vines, instead of going to rest as they ought, will make a sort of supplementary season's growth, and will assert their right to rest at the period when they should be starting into growth. Many failures' in early forcing may be traced to want of attention to this apparently trifling cause. PRUNING VINES. As will be seen by a reference to fig. 6, the only bud left to produce fruit the following season is the one at PRUNING VINES. 39 the base of the lateral shoot ; and I prefer a pair of priming-scissors to a knife for the operation of pruning. Those I use have a sort of back-action, and cut as clean as a knife. My objection * J FIG. 6. to the knife is that, unless it is used with care, the half-inch of wood left beyond the bud is often split by its action, and the bud suffers in consequence ; but this is a matter that care can easily avoid. When vines are vigorous they not unfrequently bleed copiously when forcing commences, though they may have been pruned months before. This is a clear- ly recognised evil, and many compositions have been recom- mended for preventing bleeding. Nearly all these I have tried, and others that have occurred to my own mind ; but none of them answered the purpose, till this spring I discovered a styptic which is so perfectly successful that I can, by its use, prune a house of vines in March, dress the wounds with it, and begin forcing the next day, without the loss of a drop of sap. It is manufactured and sold by John Young & Son, Dalkeith, and all seedsmen. Though the young wood be regularly cut back to one eye, in the course of years the spurs will become long and unsightly; and the best way to remedy this is to cut down a rod annually, beginning at one end of the house, running up a young rod in its stead till all have 40 GRAFTING AND INARCHING VINES. been renewed. By continuing this practice, the length or size of the spurs will never become an objection to the system. When vines have been trained on the old long-spur system, they can readily be converted to the one I recommend, by the same means as that for getting rid of the old spurs of the short-spur system ; and in order that the transition should interfere as little as possible with the supply of grapes, a few young rods can be run up annually till the whole wood in the house gets renewed. GRAFTING AND INARCHING VINES. When it is considered desirable to increase the varieties of vines in a house, the simplest way of doing so is either to graft or inarch them. For my own part I prefer the latter method ; and by putting young wood to young wood, all that is necessary is to bring the vines to be united into a convenient position to each other, and to take a slice with a sharp knife off each, nearly half through their diameter, the wounds to be the same length ; then bring their wounds together, so that at least two of their sides or lips are in close con- tact ; then put a distinct tie above the wounds, and one below them, to unable you to undo the tie that is to hold the wounds together betwixt these two at any time, without the risk of destroying the embryo union that may be taking place; then with soft matting thoroughly, and rather firmly, bandage the whole length of the wounds. The vines will swell as they grow/and this bandage will have to be slackened occasionally, when the importance of the two ties first referred to FRUITING GRAPE VINES IN POTS. 41 will appear. The growth of the stock on which the new vine is inarched may be stopped at three joints past its point of junction with the new one. In nine out of ten cases the union should be complete in a month, when the bandage may be taken off, but the ties above and below retained for some time after- wards. When the young vine shows by its vigorous growth that it is deriving supplies of sap from its new parent, its connection with its own roots may be half severed, and by the end of the season cut off entirely. I have inarched young wood on to old, but do not recommend it where young can be had conveniently. I do not consider grafting so certain a plan as inarch- ing in the manner I have described; and, besides, it leads to a good deal of bleeding when the graft is put on just as the old parent vine is started into growth. FRUITING GRAPE VINES IN POTS. As a rule, I do not consider this a profitable way of growing grapes, as compared with permanent vines planted in borders ; at the same time, there are various exceptional cases where fruit can only be had so as, for instance, the first year a vinery is erected, if the proprietor procures not only a set of vines to plant in the borders, but another set to fruit in pots, he may in this way have a partial crop of grapes in his house the first season. Or when a gardener has to root out and renew a vinery, and at the same time supply grapes, he can have recourse to vines in pots. In this way I have grown two hundred bunches of grapes, in a house 30 feet long and 13 feet wide, the year I planted it with 42 FRUITING GRAPE VINES IN POTS. young vines. Sometimes grapes can also be grown in pots over the paths at the back of pine-stoves, and in similar positions, where borders are not available for vines to grow in. It is also a very suitable way for amateurs who may have a small greenhouse near a town residence, where a vine -border cannot be made. They can annually purchase half-a-dozen fruiting vines, and train them up the rafters of their greenhouse, where they will bear fruit, and at the same time afford a grateful shade to such plants as balsams, cockscombs, achimenes, &c. For the encouragement of such I may mention that, at the June Show of the Eoyal Horticultural Society of London in 1864, a medical gentleman, in Mount Street, Gros- FIG 7 venor Square, London, got a prize for black Hamburg grapes grown on the roof of his resi- dence in a small greenhouse. Vines in pots are frequently grown for dinner-table decora- tion; but I have seldom seen them look natural and well, as they are generally grown in large pots, and coiled round stakes. Fig. 7 is an illustration of the way I have grown them in Dal- keith gardens for table decora- tion. When the vines are placed in heat, a small pot is slipped over the rod, and in this pot a neatly-made stake, painted green, is placed, and the soil filled in round it. Through this stake a set of SELECTION OF VINES. 43 strong wires are run at right angles with each other, to which the branches of the vine are tied, as shown. The small pot gets filled with roots by the time the grapes are ripe, when it may be detached from the large pot and can be set in a small vase on the table, where the tree-like plant with fine pendulous bunches of grapes looks all that can be desired. I have had one of these vines fourteen days in the fruit-room, with nothing to support it but a small pot, without a flagged leaf, and the bunches as plump as when detached from the original roots in the large pot. For growing for table in pots the black Hamburg is by far the best. The vine is a sure bearer, has fine shapely foliage, and the fruit, being dark, contrasts beautifully with it. SELECTION OF VINES. For a person who has one vinery only, and who does not mean to force early, the following twelve vines will be found suitable, and, with ordinary good manage- ment, will give grapes for six months from the 1st of August : 3 Black Hamburg. 1 Royal Muscadine. 1 Duchess of Buccleuch. 1 Eaisin de Calabrica. 1 Black Prince. 1 West's St Peter's. 3 Lady Downes Seedling. 1 Burchardt's Prince. For early forcing the following twelve are suit- able : 44 RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 4 Black Hamburg. 2 Duchess of Buccleuch. 1 Muscat Hamburg. 1 Royal Muscadine. 1 Grizzly Frontignan. 1 White Do. 3 Muscat of Alexandria. For growing in strong heat to keep for winter use : 6 Tynningham Muscat. 2 Kempsey Alicante. 1 Royal Vineyard. 1 Burchardt's Prince. 2 Lady Downes Seedling. Where there are plenty of vineries, I would recom- mend such grapes as the Frontignans and Muscats to be grown each in houses by themselves ; at the same time they will do quite well as classed in the lists I have given. RIVAL SYTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. While I am preparing the fifth edition of this work for the press, a keen controversy is being carried on in the horticultural journals as to the merits of what is designated the " extension system " of vine-culture, as compared with the " restrictive system," one section of writers maintaining that the proper mode of cultiva- tion, where long-continued vigour and fruitfulness are desired, is to allow one vine to develop and extend till it has filled the house with bearing-wood. Another section as confidently maintain that vines can be kept in perfect health and vigour sufficiently long for all practical purposes on the " restrictive system " of cul- RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 45 ture meaning by that a system which only supposes one or two bearing-rods to be trained from each vine, and where the method of pruning is what is called the close-cutting system, where the new wood is all cut back to one eye at the base of each lateral. Thus a question of such importance is raised that I do not feel justified in passing it by, apart from which I have been asked my opinion of the merits of the two sys- tems by numerous correspondents. These circumstances combined have determined me to devote a chapter to discussing the subject, believing, as 1 do, that there is much truth in what is said by the advocates of both sides of the question, as there generally is when sensible men discuss questions of this character. I may here remark that the question is by no means a new one to me ; more than twenty years ago I frequently discussed it with the late Mr Peter Kay of Finchly. Theoreti- cally, it must at once be admitted that the one-vine or " extension " system stands on vantage-ground. No one can deny that a tree which is largely developed, with its roots ranging over what I may term an exten- sive pasture-field, is likely to maintain its health and vigour for a much greater length of time than one that is by the force of circumstances restricted in its growth. But there are practical difficulties in the way of the general adoption of the former mode of culture. In the first place, all experience goes to prove that the vine is what may be termed a rambling rooter. If the border is not carefully made, and of such materials as to induce the formation of a numerous progeny of fine branching fibry roots, the width of any ordinary vine- border will soon be traversed by them. This takes 46 RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. place even when the " restrictive system " is adopted, and it will take place with infinitely greater rapidity under the other. To meet this difficulty the roots have been walled in ; but this only aggravates the evil, for the moment the roots touch the wall, they descend to the bottom of the border, where they are far from the genial influences of heat and air. Another objection brought against this system is, that one vine takes much longer to furnish a house with fruit than a number do ; but this can be met by plant- ing supernumeraries, to be removed as the permanent one advances. A third objection is, that variety of grapes is desir- able in a vinery, and that this cannot be had where only one vine is grown. Grafting or inarching will meet this objection; and it is well known that many delicate sorts of vines grow better on other than their own roots. Thus it appears that the only serious objection to the one-vine system is the difficulty of getting a border of sufficient scope for the roots of a vine of such propor- tions as will fill a good-sized vinery with fruit-bearing wood ; but where such can be had, I fully approve of the " extension system/' and will now proceed to give a detailed account of one of the best and most successful examples of it known to me, and with the origin of which I had some connection. In the year 1838 I became acquainted with the late Mr Peter Kay of Finchly, near London, and up to the date of his melancholy death I continued to discuss with him, verbally and by letter, every question that bore on the culture of the vine. He always maintained RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 47 the great importance of what he called "carrying a large amount of foliage on the vine " as the only sure way of keeping up its stamina, and acted on this him- self. I used to reply, that practically it was not ex- pedient to allow more than two leaves to grow beyond the bunch. This, with the sub-laterals stopped at one leaf, I considered sufficient, and pointed to the example of the houses at Oakhill, near Barnet, then and for twenty years so ably managed by Mr Davis, who pro- duced splendid crops of grapes, ripe in March and April, for many years in succession from the same vines, and which he pruned to one eye, and left only one leaf beyond the bunch. I thought the system I adopted, of leaving two leaves, sufficient ; Mr Kay thought other- wise, and left from four to five. Carrying his ideas still farther, he said he believed that better still would be the plan of planting only one vine in a large house. This I urged him to do, and in 1855 he built a span- roofed house 89 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 9 feet 6 inches in height to the apex. In this house he planted a single black Hamburg vine in March 1856, the roots all outside, and the border prepared 89 feet in length by 15 broad. Beyond this border are the borders of other houses, giving it scope for its roots little if at all under a quarter of an acre. The vine is trained with a leading stem from the centre of the north side wall up to the apex, and down to the south wall, for the house runs east and west. From this main stem five laterals are trained towards each end of the house one at the apex, the others equidistant between the apex and the walls. The last time I saw it in com- pany with Mr Kay was in 1862. I saw it again in 48 RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 1864, when it had a full crop of excellent grapes, weigh- ing, as I have since learned, 476 Ib. In 1865 it bore 400 Ib. of grapes; in 1866, three hundred bunches, some of them weighing 5 Ib. It took seven years to furnish the house with bearing wood. The girth of the stem where it enters the house is at this date, May 1867, 14 inches. Mr Osborne, an old pupil of Mr Kay's, has ably carried out his preceptor's mode of managing this noble vine ; and I trust it may long remain in robust health, a fitting monument to the memory of one who had few equals as an enthusiastic cultivator of the vine, and one who stands alone as having built a large house and planted it with a single vine to test a theory which some writers of the present day are starting as a new one. Having thus placed the " extension " or one- vine system before my readers in the light in which I have long viewed it, I will, as briefly as the subject will admit of, take a review of what is said against the "restrictive" or many- vine system. The opponents of this latter system of vine-culture take their key- note from Mr Cannell, nurseryman, Woolwich, who when gardener at Portnall Park was so unsuccessful as a vine-cultivator, that he has chronicled the death of all the vines he then had charge of, after passing through nine stages of decadence, which Mr Tillery of Welbeck has compared to Shakespeare's seven ages of man, and described in very good verse in the 'Nottingham Guardian' of March 15, 1867. Mr Cannell's vines, we are bound to believe, died; but I am quite certain he is in error when he attributes their death to the " restrictive " or one-rod system. I RIVAL SYSTEMS OF VINE-CULTURE. 49 know many very old vines that have been cultivated on the " restrictive system," and that have continued in perfect health for many years. At Oakhill, near London, Mr Dowding planted a number of vineries forty years ago ; I became acquainted with them in 1837, and for twenty subsequent years Mr Davis, who succeeded Mr Dowding, produced the most regular and finest crops of grapes in the kingdom from these same vines, yet they maintained their health, vigour, and fruitfulness. They were planted one vine to each rafter, and the system of pruning was the " close-cut- ting" one, by which only one eye was left at the base of each lateral. There is an old vine, referred to in this work, at Wrotham Park, which is eighty years old, and has all along been cultivated on the " restrictive system," for it only clothes two rafters ; yet I learn from Mr Edling- ton, who now has charge of it, that it is in as full health and vigour as any of the younger vines, and bears equally fine fruit, and has a stem 1 foot 7 inches in girth. True, the border it grows in has been once renewed in the time. In regard to this old vine I make the following extract from a letter from Mr Edlington just to hand. He writes, "The old Ham- burg produces fruit equal to the other and younger vines in the same house. Last year they were truly magnificent, surpassing all other grapes on the place." I might go on multiplying instances to prove that vines neither become unfruitful nor die off in nine years, as Mr Cannell's did, because they are not allowed to extend the area of their foliage annually, but I think such unnecessary. The fact is, that the vine is a very D 50 THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. docile plant ; and if its foliage is kept free from the attacks of insects, if over-cropping is avoided, and the wood well ripened, if the border is made of mode- rately good materials, and the drainage sufficient, the vine will continue in health and vigour for fifty years under any of those systems of pruning and training that are practised by gardeners of intelligence, whether that be the "restrictive" and close-pruning system, or the "extension" and long-spur system. I therefore close this chapter as I began it, by say- ing that there is much truth on both sides of this question. Where it is necessary to have circumscribed borders, as is generally the case, I would plant a vine to every 6 -feet run of a vinery, and grow two rods from each plant. This would give such vigour to the roots as would react on the branches in such a way as to yield both good bunches and berries, while at the same time a border 20 or 30 feet wide would afford them sustenance for many years. Where there is ample scope for the roots to run unchecked and uninjured for 150 or 200 feet, then by all means adopt the one-vine or "extension" system, inarching or grafting on to this patriarch all the varieties required. THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. In the front rank of these stands the disease known to gardeners as " shanking." This great enemy to grape- growing makes its appearance just as the grapes are changing from their acid to their saccharine state, and THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. 51 it arrests the transformation at once, and the berry re- mains perfectly acid, and becomes shrivelled in a short time. All that the eye can detect in the case is, the decay of the little stem or shank of the berry ; and what appears strange, it more frequently attacks grapes that are not forced early than those that are. Many able physiologists have attempted to explain its cause and cure, though as yet with but little success; and it is with diffidence that I enter on a path that has been trod by such men. I will attempt to point out, first, what I think its principal cause; I say principal, because I consider that there may be several concurrent causes aiding the chief one, such as over-cropping, destruction of the foliage by red spider, or any other cause ; and in the second place, to point out what I think the most likely remedy. I will describe the circumstances under which shanking is most generally met with. The most frequent of these is when the roots of the vines have descended into a cold wet subsoil ; but it is also met with where the roots are not down in the sub- soil, but where they are growing vigorously, towards autumn especially, in a rich and what many would term well-made border, where they receive plenty of liquid manure, where the foliage in the house is fine, the wood strong, and the young roots, if sought for, will- be found pushing along in the rich earth in September, like the points of a goose-quill. I have known the appearances I have now described to be all present where the border was paved under the roots with stone pavement, yet there was scarcely a bunch of grapes in the house that had a dozen unshanked berries 52 THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. on it. I must now describe what I consider took place in the case on hand. The vines made great, strong, young roots in this rich soil late in autumn ; they were not short, branching, fibry roots, but soft, like the roots of some bulb ; and by the time the action of the leaves had ceased, these roots were anything but ripe, and they all perished, during the winter rains, back to the old stem-roots from which they sprang. The vines, never- theless, have a given amount of stored-up sap in them, though they have lost their active roots,. and they are pruned and started, say, the following February. While this stored-up sap lasts they grow vigorously enough, but a period arrives when it is exhausted ; and the new comes but slowly, for the old roots that remain are just beginning, through the action of the foliage, to start into life a fresh set of young ones that are able as yet to supply but little. This takes place when the berry is passing through the stoning period of its existence always a crisis with fruit of any kind ; and the consequence is a thorough failure of the crop from shanking, either resulting directly from want of proper nourishment at this important period, or from some other hidden cause which springs from this want. The crop of fruit is lost as thus described, but the vines seem in good health, and they make strong roots towards autumn, again to share the fate of their predecessors ; and so the round goes on. The proper remedy for such a state of things and I have never known it fail where over-cropping was avoided, and the necessary care bestowed on the vines in every other respect is to raise the roots and remove the rich damp soil of the border, replacing it with the THE DISEASES VINES ARE SUBJECT TO. 53 compost already recommended in this treatise, and re- laying the roots carefully in it. Let me add that, if the locality is a wet one, I would double the amount of burned clay and lime-rubbish in making up the com- post. The class of roots that will be formed in this relatively poorer border will differ widely from those formed in the richer one. They will be much more numerous, smaller, and woody, branching in every direction, permeating its whole mass. They will ripen before the autumn rain sets in, and in such dry, open, and light soil will survive the winter, and be ready for action early the following season. If it is objected that such a compost is too poor to produce heavy crops of grapes, I reply that it is easy, during the growing season, to give one or two good waterings with liquid manure. What is wanted is a host of healthy, hungry mouths. It is easy to feed them when they exist, but when they are dead and gone no feeding can avail ; for be it remarked, that if even the points of the young roots or spongelets are decayed, absorption of sap can- not take place to any extent till they are restored ; and this, in a rich, cold, damp border, is not an early process with a vine. On this subject Dr Lindley remarks : " It is not by the coarse old woody roots that the absorption of food is most energetically carried on, but by the youngest parts, and especially by the spongioles." I have thus described what I think the primary cause of shanking in grapes namely, the destruction of the young roots in winter. I will now assign what I consider the reason why early-forced grapes are less subject to it than late. Early-forced vines have their 54 RED SPIDER. roots formed earlier in the season than late ones. The "rest" of the plant and the ripening of the roots are thus more likely to be complete before the cold rains of winter set in ; and even in a rich border, more of the young roots survive than in the case of those of later-started vines ; though, under all circumstances as to time of forcing, the rich heavy border is very unsafe for supplying constant crops of good grapes. RED SPIDER. This small insect is perhaps the greatest pest the vine-grower has to contend with ; and as prevention is better than cure, the first step to be taken is to wash every part of the vinery, the wood and glass, with a brush, and warm water well dashed into every crevice, and the walls with a lime- wash made from hot shell- lime, with a little sulphur stirred into it. Let all loose bark be removed from the vines after they are pruned, scrub them well with soap and water and a brush, and give them a painting over with the mixture already re- commended; let the soil of the border inside the house be slightly forked, and give it a watering with water in which a little sulphur (say one ounce to two gallons) has been stirred, which will kill any insects or larvae that may have fallen on the soil. This done, and the vines kept in proper health, spider ought not to make its appearance till the grapes are stoning ; but watch for it constantly do not wait till the leaves are becom- ing red from its effects. It will first show itself at the hottest part of the house ; and the moment it is seen, have the return-pipes painted with sulphur mixed with RED SPIDER. 55 milk and water: repeat this painting of the pipes once a-week, and it will arrest the progress of this most troublesome of insects. Some recommend constant syringing as a preventive, but I have often observed that this cure was as bad as the disease, as far as the appearance of the grapes was concerned. I am therefore averse to syringing vines with water while the grapes are on them, unless it can be had free from lime, chalk, or other matter in suspension, which forms a crust of lime or chalk, as the case may be, on the berries, and disfigures them very much. Cir- cumstances, however, will arise where it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep red spider in check by any other available means ; for during hot weather in summer the pipes cannot be kept so hot as to im- pregnate the atmosphere of the house by the radia- tion of sulphur from their surface, and the syringe has to be called into action, in which case make a sand filter, and pass rain water through it, in order to clear it of any particles of soot or white-lead off the houses it may contain. Make the water the same temperature as the atmosphere of the house, and syringe the vines care- fully all over when the house is shut in the afternoon. If this is done every third day, red spider will make little progress. In the case of vines in the first and second years of their growth, the syringe may be used with perfect safety, as there is no fruit to injure. Steaming, and an atmosphere highly charged with moisture, have also been recommended ; but, independently of the bad effects of such a climate on the vine itself, I do not believe moisture checks the progress of red spider, for I have seen it thrive perfectly on plants standing all 56 RUST ON GRAPES. summer in an aquatic tank, in a steaming atmosphere. Sulphur is a real specific for the pest, where it can be effectually applied from the surface of hot pipes. Injury to the fruit may be apprehended from sulphur put on the flow-pipes if they are made very hot. The constant evaporation of water, with guano stirred into it, from saucers or troughs placed on the hot pipes, has been found to act as a preventive against the attacks of red spider, and at the same time to conduce to the health of any class of plants, whether grown for fruit or flower. It charges the atmosphere of the house with ammonia to the extent of making it something like that of a dung-frame, in which it is well known that insects do not thrive, and all plants requiring heat do. Other sources of procuring a supply of ammonia will suggest themselves to the reader. The atmosphere of the house should, however, never be charged with it to the extent of affecting the eyes of a person, as that of an ill-kept stable does in hot weather, for fear of injury to the plants as well as to insects. RUST ON GRAPES. This is a disease that makes its appearance on the berries in a few days after they are set ; every grape- grower is too familiar with it to make it necessary I should describe it. Some have said it is caused by handling the berries while thinning them, others by being rubbed with the hair of the thinner's head, others again by cold currents of air. I am not prepared to say but that any or all of these causes will produce rust; but I am certain that the most fertile source of RUST ON GRAPES. 57 it is the application of sulphur to the pipes or flue about the time the grapes come into bloom. I was led to suspect this some time ago, by observing that in houses where the foliage was affected with a sort of green warty excrescence on the back of the leaf of which more hereafter the very day sulphur was applied to the pipes these green warts, if I may term them such, became black, and killed, to all appearance. Here, then, was a case where the sulphur was affecting organised vegetable matter. This led me to suspect it might be the cause of rust, in as far as it was as likely to be able to affect the young and tender skin of the embryo grape as that of the parts of the leaves referred to ; and I was confirmed in this belief by the following circumstances : In a house of vines, where we also grew French beans and strawberries, red spider was very troublesome, and before the grapes came into bloom I had the pipes painted with sulphur. This house was the only one on the place where sulphur was used till after the grapes were set some time, and the only one w^here they had rust on them. This year (1862) I applied no sulphur to the pipes till the grapes were stoning, and they are perfectly free from rust ; and as they have been treated in every other respect exactly the same as formerly, I have satisfied my own mind that sulphur, applied to hot pipes in a house where vines are in bloom, is sure to cause rust on the berries, especially in the case of such tender-skinned grapes as black Hamburgs.* * Farther experience confirms the opinion expressed in this chapter about sulphur being the fertile source of rust. [ 58 J MILDEW ON THE VINE. Mildew, when it attacks the vine, is a most insidious and destructive disease. Its ravages in the vineyards of the Continent have been of the most serious char- acter, involving the ruin of thousands ; and in our own country, some twelve or fourteen years ago, hundreds of vineries had their crops destroyed by it. In Middlesex, where I then lived, this disease was almost universal, but I never had it except on one vine, and this one grew in the cold end of a fighouse, where it was shaded a good deal by trees. This house had but little heat applied to it by artificial means, and was the only one of seven houses in which we had vines, where their treatment and the situation of the house were such as to favour, according to my views, the development of the spores of the vine mildew. The house was in a damp, shady situation. The vines were never forced, but allowed to come on with the heat of the sun ; and the season when the disease made its appearance was cold and wet. As soon as I observed it, I sprinkled sulphur on the flue, and began firing it, keeping a cur- rent of air as dry as possible in the house. I watched the stems and thread-like links of the parasite on the leaves and berries with a glass, and I found that the current of dry air and fumes of the sulphur caused them to shrivel up and die. The disease made no fur- ther progress, and I believe it will never attack vines that are grown in a proper climate. As to heat, moist- ure, and ventilation, many treat their vines so as to predispose them to it, or rather they bring about such WARTS ON THE BACK OF THE LEAF. 59 a climate as the mildew will grow in. It is not uncom- mon for individuals to have some favourite day in June, perhaps, when they give up firing their vinery. They still continue the usual sprinkling with water, and shut up the house with a stagnant atmosphere, loaded with moisture ; and it often happens that cold nights reduce the temperature of the vinery so low that the vital energy of the vines is depressed, predisposing them to disease, while they are in a climate well adapted to the growth of fungi of any sort. To a careful attention to the keeping up the proper degree of heat during the whole forcing season, not too much moisture, and a constant circulation of fresh air, I attribute the exemp- tion from vine mildew I have experienced, when vineries not five hundred yards off had their crops ruined by it. It has been supposed by some that the mildew merely makes its appearance as the conse- quence of a diseased condition of the tissues of the vine ; but this I hold to be a mistake. The spores of the parasite in question may exist in myriads on every inch of the vine's surface and do it no harm, unless the climate of the vinery is made to suit their development, when they spring into life as if by magic, and arrest the growth of all they attack. In a hot and rather dry climate they never can do this, and in such the vine may be considered safe from their effects. WARTS ON THE BACK OF THE LEAF. .;;.; . . .' , ' This is a sort of conglomerate of little green warts that form on the lower surface of the leaf, as if the re- sult of an extravasation of sap through its epidermis or 60 AIR-ROOTS ON THE VINE. skin. Some writers say this is not a disease. If it is not such, strictly speaking, it is at least organised matter in the wrong place ; and I am confident it seriously im- pedes the important functions of perspiration, digestion, and respiration ; so that if not in itself a disease, it leads to functional derangement, which is nearly the same thing. As has been remarked while treating of the effects of sulphur, these green warts are more easily affected by the particles thereof floating in the atmosphere of the vinery than any other portion of the vine, except the embryo berries. I can undertake to produce or prevent this disease shall I call it ? at any time betwixt the first expansion of the foliage and the stoning of the fruit. A close, warm atmosphere, saturated with moisture, will produce it ; whereas a free circulation of air, moderately charged with moisture, will prevent its appearance. I have seen instances where the .leaves were so affected by it that they all cupped themselves up round the edges, the fruit did not swell to much more than half its natural size, and the general progress of the vine was retarded. AIR-ROOTS ON THE VINE. Though this cannot be called a disease, it is a state of things that is not desirable. It proceeds from one of two causes, or both combined. Either the atmosphere is kept too moist, or the border is too cold, and probably wet, for the natural roots to make progress in at the time ; and to supply the demands of a large expanse of foliage these roots are thrown out. If the natural roots were in a border that, in texture, STOCKS FOR TENDER VINES. 6l temperature, and moisture, was congenial to their nature, and the atmosphere of the vinery what it ought to be, there would be no air-roots ; so that at least they are symptoms of an undesirable state of things, as I have already said. SCALDING. I have used the above name for a disease that certain varieties of grapes, more especially Lady Downes and the Muscats, are subject to, just as they are finishing their stoning. It attacks individual berries in the bunches, and always during hot sunny weather. The berry becomes suddenly dimpled on one side, and in a few hours has the appearance of having been dipped in boiling water, after which it rapidly decays. In this way I have seen bunches, especially of Lady Downes, reduced to skeletons. The perfect remedy for this is, to give the vinery as much air as a common green- house during the heat of the day, the moment the disease begins to show itself, till all tendency to it is over, a period of not more than fourteen days, after which the house may be aired as usual for a vinery. I observed from the complaints made in the horticul- tural press in the summer of 1864, that this disease was very prevalent just as I would have expected during so hot a summer, and with, in too many cases, defective means of ventilation. STOCKS FOR TENDER VINES. Those who have paid most attention to the subject have come to the conclusion that many of the highest f.J M-.H K.-, H|< T|.;NI>H< VINKN. IlllVnuivd nfnnr MniprM, win. I. HIV ;.l ill.- Mimic lll.ir llir i M<> I dolirntp HIM! dillii'iill l> "i<>\\ \\ M d n. . , ,, n 1 1,, M nwil I.M.I \\||| our <|.i\ I" "i>\\ll \\illi |.l m\ Nolf jH'nvnd I lin convi I nc . i of il,, l.iii.i luil li.i\< i, i.l (if illMl.llH CM <>| ll. in- I. K .1 (.lilli.- II..IH .in..|,.-.\ . Mill |.i- | >M rod (n Imliovti it, Of iJio rnnunr I luid > .hiking |nnr iu llio ciiHtMif Hie \lu ,..i I Inniliurg on Ilir hliirk lluillhurg Hldck nil ll.i n\\ II i....| . I lijivc ii. -I "i.'\\n ll nln\- '.', II. \\civ.lil. \vlllli' nil Mir Ihlllllnir" ;,(>, L;i I llllVO Ilild i! 4) III. \\.-i-lil. \\illi l.n.-. i h, in. m.l inih Ii lutltor (IniNliod in \.i\ \\.\\ NIMH l ilii < \|MM'iii\(Mil hty in (lio prnni it "i\< Mint i Id. .in, K |>i'n<'niM!mnlr-li lli\.>m.d lli>n.-li ddu.ilc jji'MpOM M MUHmt llMllilMli''., ;inl I lie \\lmli- nf llu^ I'Vnnl UMIMIIM, I Iwvo nnl llir .-.h-dih^t dnuhl, .md I li.ivc during IMM! Mtinunor iiuirrluul llu^so norln nnd nuuiv ntlxM-.i nn il. MI. I rornininond nllitM'a In dn (ho MMIHC, l<'i lm cnnli .K n! (lid MlUMH^HH will !' ill'- re. nil I M I r \< K I NO i<- Mi'i'vaJ ion of ili.- hlnnin vvlmro (liny IIM.VO In I- ni l n <'t HIMldlTII I ilr d Ilil II IHV I >\ I Ml 1)1 1C rnll \ r \ ii in r | |m |imtll <>! grttjiMH, Tlir linXi-M llM\r l\ dlVliilnli ill lllril 1 (MilltrnH ', tll(\V MIT ilm in l.wn ' "in|)ni'lninlilrt, I plucn n InyiM' ! lino I- 'I- ' MliitviiigM ill t-ho box : I Mini wnip oit^li i-im. i. of i i|" in ii, hlinnd nf Him nil\ri IHIJM i dinl Iny it nil llin lillilA III" . Ill llir IMI . , | Ix-ll M I'rW i ll I \ lll"M I 1 W 1 X I i t III |( I ill- i" i hunch, lill Mm -injuirlnmiil, which hnl\ |i,Li-M (ill MM- \Vr|.|||. n| | ,| . ; i !) | r n||r HCl. nf hlllM-lh-H WniiM .ir nn iilinllirr. KKKPINU nilAI'UM Ai n;it TIIIHY AIIIC iili-i 'I In lit i in ,11. i win in-l nl Iclll inll -in (In inn. I. I I.,-... iln< linn (IM(Iti) Ko|il. Lndy l)nwn ;'. Ii iir-iii" mi ML \ llir till Mn.y, ill II. I 64 KEEPING GRAPES AFTER THEY ARE RIPE. where we began cutting black Hamburgs in August. This house is 110 feet long, 11 feet high, and 11 feet wide, and has been referred to already as having been planted in 1858. It is a common lean-to house, built to serve the double purpose of growing figs on the back wall, a vine up each rafter and one half-way up the centre of each sash, the sashes being 5 feet wide. The ventilation is by an opening sash to the north on the top of the wall, and the front sashes open out- wards in the usual way by lever and rod. The cost of this house, including boiler arid two rows of 4 -inch pipe along the front, was under 200, and at Christmas last we had four hundred bunches of Lady Downes and West's St Peter's grapes hanging in it, representing a commercial value little short of its original cost. In order that grapes may keep well, it is necessary that they should be well ripened by the end of Sep- tember, and not grown in a wet border; nor should the internal atmosphere of the house be kept loaded with moisture. What is required in grapes to keep well is a firm, fleshy berry, not one full of water. The bunches should have the berries well thinned out, more so than in the case of grapes that are to be used shortly after they are ripe. Long, tapering bunches keep better than broad-shouldered ones, as the berries in the centres of the latter are apt to damp off and destroy the bunch before it is observed. As soon as the grapes are thoroughly ripe, the night temperature should be lowered to 50 till the leaves fall off or ripen, when they should be removed carefully by hand from the vines. After this date the fire-heat should never exceed 45, nor fall below 35 at night ; and in damp, KEEPING GRAPES AFTER THEY ARE RIPE. 65 foggy weather I keep the house carefully shut up for nights and days at a time. To give air during a damp, foggy day is to fill the house with the very evil you wish to avoid damp air. The surface of the internal border is allowed to get perfectly dry, and to remain so all winter, care being taken that as little sweeping or raking take place as possible, for by this means dust is raised, which settles on the bunches > Half the roots are in the outside border, and had no covering at all. Towards the close of February I cut about fifty bunches of the Lady Downes, detaching the branch on which the bunch grew, as when pruning the vine. I then sharpened the ends of the branches, and run some four or five of them with a bunch on each into the side of a mangold- wurzel laid on the shelf of the fruit-room, allowing the bunches to hang over the side of the shelf. In this way the grapes kept perfectly fresh till April. I left some fifteen bunches on one vine for experiment- ing upon, two of which are still hanging at this date, May 2. About the 15th of April the sap began to rise in the vines, and some of the berries that were a little shrivelled suddenly got plump, while others that had shown no signs of shrivelling burst their skins, and the sap of the vine that had forced itself into them began to drip from them. It was tinged with colouring matter out of the berry, and had the taste of the berry. To stop this bursting of the berries, I made an incision in the lateral on which the bunch hung, betwixt it and the parent stem of the vine, in two places, half through, at opposite sides of the lateral. This drew off the sap, and no more berries burst. The vines have now young E 66 AMATEUR'S VINERY CALENDAR. growths on them 9 inches long, and are appropriating all the sap, and the bleeding has ceased from the incisions. In February I had all the eyes picked out of the laterals except the one at the base of each. These are showing fruit like others that were pruned in the usual way, except the three I bled : they are much weaker than the others. From this experiment it may be reasonably inferred that it is not judicious to keep grapes hanging on the vines after the sap begins to rise. It, however, proves that it is possible to cut old grapes in May, and considering that new can be cut in January, gives an overlap of four months in the supply of grapes. 1 > AMATEUR'S VINERY CALENDAR. If ripe grapes are desired, say, on the 20th of July, it will be necessary to start the vines on the 1st of March, they having been pruned and dressed in the autumn, as already directed. If the border is in a proper condition, and the vines vigorous, begin with a night temperature of 50, and allow it to rise to 65 with sun-heat during the day. Keep the atmosphere of the house as moist as possible, and syringe the vines several times daily with tepid water. As soon as the buds burst, raise the night tem- perature to 55, and let there be a corresponding rise from sun-heat throughout their progress. When the buds are half an inch long, rub off all but the strongest one at each eye, and discontinue the syringing. As soon as the embryo fruit-buds can be seen in the points of the young shoots, raise the night temperature to 60 ; AMATEUR'S VINERY CALENDAR. 67 and if they have the appearance of a sort of compro- mise betwixt a fruit -bud and a tendril, discontinue the supply of moisture to the atmosphere, and raise the temperature to 65. This is a very critical stage with vines whose wood has not been well ripened, and that is, in consequence, prone to show tendrils instead of bunches. The only chance of saving the crop is to give a high, dry temperature. On the other hand, when the, vines have been well ripened the previous year, the embryo bunches show themselves with the flower-buds well individualised, and there is little danger of their running off into claspers. This being the case, a moderate degree of moisture should be kept up from the steaming-tray. As soon as the shoots have run out, so that their points can be pinched off at two joints beyond the bunch, let it be done with care, so as not to injure the young leaves that are left. I recommend that, as soon as the best-shaped bunches can be dis- tinguished, all but one on a shoot should be taken off at once. This can generally be done when the shoots are stopped or pinched. When the young shoots have become sufficiently woody to stand bending down to the wires, get them tied down carefully. Small lateral shoots will start at each joint of the young shoots; these should be pinched, so as to leave one joint. Some leave no joint, but pinch off close. I have known this cause the proper eyes of the shoot to start, which is an evil. By the time the bunches are in bloom let the night heat be 70, and keep the atmosphere dry. As soon as the berries are set, cut off all the bunches except those required for the crop at once. Any other course is a waste of sap, which will all be needed. It 68 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. is difficult to give directions as to the number of bunches that should be left on a vine, so much depends on the vigour of the plant and the size of the bunches. As a rule, I consider 1 Ib. of grapes to every two superficial feet of glass a fair crop. Throughout the entire period of forcing, a constant circulation of air should be kept up, as directed in the body of this treatise. In May and June, if the weather is hot and dry, little fire-heat will be required, and consequently little evaporation will take place from the steaming apparatus. In such a case the paths and border may be sprinkled slightly with water ; but avoid the stewing system by all means. As soon as the grapes are thoroughly ripe, the house should be kept as cool as it generally can be in July. In the case of Muscat grapes, I would let the tempera- ture at all stages be 5 higher than that I have recom- mended. I have shut up a Muscat house with a sun temperature of 100; but 95 is safer, and 90 in the case of all other sorts. EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. The first of these that I shall describe is that of a very large house of vines at Wrotham Park, Middlesex. When I entered on the management of these gardens, in the autumn of 1837, 1 found all the vineries in a very unsatisfactory state, and it was determined that the vines and borders of three of them should be renewed at once ; but the large house in question was not one of those it was 65 feet long, 22 feet wide, 7 feet high in front, and the back wall 1 6 feet high. There was a row of strong cast-iron pillars running along the centre of it EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 69 to support the rafters, and against these the vines were planted, twisting round them like enormous snakes. My employers were loath to have these old vines de- stroyed, and wished me to make an effort to renovate them if possible. I made a careful examination of the state and position of their roots, and found that none of them were within a foot of the surface of the soil. It was the custom to keep all the bedding plants standing on the floor of this house, and the constant watering and treading had made the whole surface, which had not been broken up for years, as hard as asphalt. This I had picked up, and removed from the house, to the depth of one foot ; I then got hold of the leading roots, and traced them as far as possible. When they could be pursued no further without going a great depth, I cut them, and coiled them round the pillars that sup- ported the stems, till in this way I had raised some eight or ten of the roots of each vine, not one of which, as far as I traced them, had any live rootlets on them. I had mats put round these bundles of roots, and kept them damp for the time being. I removed six old peach-trees that grew as standards in the house, the vines being confined to the rafters. I took out a large pit where each of these stood, and in doing so cut many of the roots of the vines. I then filled the pits for the peach-trees with the best turfy loam I could get, and planted them, and laid six inches of the soil I had pre- pared for the new vine-borders all over the surface of the border of this house, with a considerable extra allowance of good rotten dung. I then laid out all the roots on this bed of new soil, making a regular set of incisions with the knife, right and left, about 9 inches 70 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. apart, along their whole length, covering them over with 6 inches of the same compost, and giving them a good watering with warm water. This was done in March, just as their buds were beginning to swell. They broke as weak as straws, and looked very miserable till about the end of July, when they showed some signs of making second growths of a more vigorous character than the first. Shortly after this time I dug down to several of the roots I had made the incisions in, and found that, from the lip of each wound nearest the parent stem, a great number of young roots, like porcupine quills, had started off into the new soil. This was in the summer of 1838, and in 1839 they broke comparatively strong, showing a fair' crop of fruit, which they brought to perfect maturity. In 1840, and for seven or eight years afterwards, they bore first-rate crops of excellent grapes, colouring well. They were black Hamburgs. About 1848 they, however, began to indicate that their vigour was on the wane ; and as the house had to undergo extensive repairs, I removed them all to make way for a new border and young vines, except one at the west end of the house, which I kept, partly as a memento, and partly to experiment upon. During the process of removing the old border I had the entire soil and roots removed from the one in question to within 6 feet of its stem. I then re- moved the soil from the bare arms for roots they could scarcely be termed to within 3 feet all round ; and after making incisions in them as before, I laid them, radiating from the centre, in the new soil of the border made up for the young vines ; and though the vine looked sickly for a time, and the leaves flagged EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 71 during sunshine, it soon recovered, and, for the subse- quent six years I had the management of it, bore fine crops of grapes. Of this vinery, and of the particular old vine in question, Mr Kobert Fish thus writes in ' The Cottage Gardener and Country Gentleman's Com- panion/ in the number for July 14, 1857, while describ- ing the gardens at Wrotham Park : " We observed that the forcing-houses were showing well for fruit ; that the huge vinery in the centre of the range where the vines are planted in the centre of the house, the stems supported by iron pillars till they reach near the glass, and then branch to the back and front was in great luxuriance, though the size of the stems spoke of the vines having seen many summers " (they were then, with the exception of that to be referred to, only nine years old), " and one of these stems seemed to be con- tending for the mastery with the iron column, clasping it so firmly, as ultimately, I fear, to suffer from the embrace." This latter was my old friend whose roots I cut in so severely; and when I saw this same house in 1860, this octogenarian for such he must be was in as great vigour as the comparatively young vines by his side. Another, to some extent experimental, process, by which I renewed the border and replanted a house with Muscats at Wrotham Park, may be interesting, and probably useful, to some of my readers. This house was what had been a pine-stove ; and up each rafter a very old Hamburg vine was trained, pines being grown in a pit underneath them. For special reasons it was determined to grow fewer pines, so that this house would not in future require to be occupied with them ; and it 72 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. was determined to make a new border, which had to be entirely outside the house, and plant the house with Muscats, after cutting a crop of grapes off the Ham- burgs, in 1847. With a view to this I got as many round flat hampers as there were rafters in the house to be planted, and set them on some boards on the floor of the large vinery previously described. In the bottoms of the hampers I laid thin turfs, with the grass sides down. On this I placed nice, sharp, but not very rich soil, and in March shook out of their pots the required number of year-old Muscat vines, cut back to about ten eyes some months previously, placed the stem near one side of the hamper, and spread out the roots like the fingers of an extended hand, covering up with the same sort of soil, and finishing with a good water- ing, placing a hamper against each of the pillars and training the young rods up the pillars. As this large house was only kept a little closer than a greenhouse, the vines made fine short-jointed canes. By the latter end of June we had finished cutting the grapes on the black Hamburgs that the vines in the hampers were destined to replace, when I removed them, and on the 1st of July had the border made up to the extent of 9 feet in width along the front of the house. Seats were made in the soil of the border for the hampers, whose bottoms were rotten by this time. The planks on which they were set enabled us, however, to move them in safety. The young canes were introduced through the front wall as the old ones had been. About three joints of the previous year's wood were laid in the soil, after having an incision made in it below each joint. (The danger to be apprehended from the attacks EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 73 of fungi would now lead me to omit the incisions, especially where bottom heat is to be applied.) The hampers were then cut away and removed, leaving the great round flat ball full of fine young roots, to be covered over with 4 inches of soil. The young canes were from 12 to 14 feet long, two from each plant, when planted. They did not receive the slightest check to their growth, but made splendid canes to the top of the house, and ripened thoroughly in the autumn. They would have yielded a good crop of grapes half-way up the house, in 1848, had they been allowed to do so. As it was, they were allowed to carry two bunches to each rod, making four to each plant. In 1849 they bore twelve bunches on each rod, and in 1850 the heaviest crop of Muscats I ever saw, many of the bunches weighing 3^ Ib. ; and up to 1860, when I saw them last, they have borne exceedingly heavy crops of fine grapes. Had I prepared a double set of vines in the same way, so as to have cropped one-half the first year, and then to have cut them out, the border and vines could have been renewed without the loss of a single crop. From this house I have more than once cut old grapes in March ; on one occasion, on the 16th of that month. The only other case of this character which I shall describe, as founded on my own experience, was the raising of the roots of a house of vines in the gardens at Dalkeith in June 1855. It was evident that the roots of the vines in question had grown down to the subsoil, and I determined to raise them and lay them in new soil. On the 8th of June, after covering the glass of the house with a tarpaulin, I had a trench cut 74 EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. down right along the border, within 12 feet of the front of the house, and then cleared away all the old soil and raised the roots close up to the front wall. We thus had the whole of the roots disengaged from the soil, as there was then no border inside the house. I had them laid as fast as possible into the new soil, and well watered. Their foliage all flagged and hung down; but I kept the house close, moist, and warm, and excluded all the direct rays of the sun effectually. The berries in the bunches were the size of peas, and for a few days they were quite wrinkled in their skins. At the end of a week the leaves began to turn up a little. I then took off the tarpaulin and put on a lighter shad- ing of tiffany, and in the course of another week I removed this also and put on hexagon netting. In a month from the date of the operation they were per- fectly recovered and growing fast. They ripened 30 Ib. of good grapes the same year, and in 1856 bore a splen- did crop of fruit, and continued to do so for three sub- sequent years. The vines were, however, old, and had been pruned on the long-spur system, which rendered them unsightly. All our other vineries were planted with young vines in 1856, and in 1860 were in full bearing. Under these circumstances I was induced to make arrangements for doing away with the old vines in question, but, before doing so, determined to have one more crop off them as early as possible in 1861, and replant the house the same year. To hasten this I re- moved a pine-pit no longer required in the house, the removal of the front wall of which gave access to the roots of the vines in the outside border through the arches of the front wall of the house. I then filled the EXPERIMENTS WITH VINES. 75 interior of the house, previously occupied by the pit, with hot fermenting dung and leaves. This material was placed in close contact with the roots of the vines through the arches, and acted as a hot lining to the entire border. The outside surface of the border was covered with dry leaves and thatched. The house was started in this way on the 1st of September, and on the 1st of January 1861 we cut the first dish of grapes, exactly three months earlier than we cut from the same house the year before, though started at the same time, and treated in the same manner, with the exception of the hot lining to the roots. Seeing that the success of this experiment was so satisfactory, and finding, on ex- amination, that a host of fine young roots had estab- lished themselves in the lining as it cooled, I made up my mind to give them another trial, and last summer I pruned them in July. In the end of August I put a quantity of hot fermenting dung and leaves on the top of the previous year's lining, so to speak ; and we cut excellent grapes on the 1st of January 1862. The crop was nearly double that of last year ; and in March the wood was perfectly ripe, and much stronger than ever I saw it in this house before. I need scarcely add that the sentence at one time recorded against them for their unsightliness has been revoked. Some may consider that I have been tediously par- ticular in my efforts to explain this case ; but if so, they must excuse me on account of my anxiety clearly to establish the importance of bottom heat for early forced vines ; and from my own experience in the case of these vines, as well as from theoretical reasoning, I have come to the conclusion that it is less destructive 76 OPEN-AIR CULTURE. to the constitution of vines to begin forcing them in August than in October. My opinion on this subject has been endorsed by Dr Lindley, whose great eminence as a vegetable physiologist is universally recognised. In his remarks in a leading article in ' The Gardeners' Chronicle' for February 22, 1862, on an article on this subject, which I communicated to the ' Florist and Po- mologist ' of that month, he says : " It is quite evident, as Mr Thomson points out, that the natural chemical advantages are all on the side of the earlier forced vines. When started in August, they have before them three months of comparatively fine weather, which is of im- mense importance to them, and suffices for all the more critical periods of their development. When started in October to be ripe in March, the entire period of growth belongs to the most dreary and unpropitious part of the whole year ; so that it would seem resting the vines in the hot dry months of summer dryness being at that period the maturing agent and renewing the growth in August so as to snatch as much as possible of the fine weather of autumn for all the earlier stages of growth, turns out, in practice as it does in theory, to be the proper course for producing new ripe grapes on New Year's Day, and this with better results than would be obtained a couple of months later." OPEN-AIR CULTURE. In the latitude of Britain the grape vine can only be grown in the open air with very partial success, even in the most favoured of the southern counties, and then it must be trained against a wall with a south aspect. OPEN-AIR CULTURE. 77 The soil in which the vine should be planted for open- air culture, should not be so rich as that used for it under glass, and should consist of three-fourths light sandy loam, the other fourth to be made up of old lime- rubbish, brickbats, and burned clay, with a small propor- tion of broken bones. In this compost it will not make such strong canes as in a richer one, but they will ripen better, and have more prominent fruit-buds than the product of rich soil. The young wood should be nailed close up to the wall as it advances, so as to get the benefit during the night of the heat the wall has ab- sorbed from the sun during the day. As to pruning and training, the same course should be pursued as what I have recommended for the vine under glass. During the cold nights of spring, early summer, and autumn, great benefit will result from covering the soil along the bottom of the wall where the roots of the vines are, with fern, straw, or any such litter, as soon as the sun ceases to shine on it ; to be uncovered every morning when the sun shines on it again. In this way the heat derived from the sun is retained in the soil, instead of passing off by radiation, as it soon does, especially in clear cold nights. With a wooden rake the operation of covering and uncovering is soon performed, and might with great advantage be applied to other wall fruit-trees as well as to the vine. Various methods of protecting the young buds of the vines from spring frosts, such as covering with oiled calico, old fishing-nets, &c., will suggest themselves to all concerned. A considerable width of projecting coping is of much importance, in as far as, besides sheltering from frost, it throws the wet clear of the 78 OPEN-AIR CULTURE. foliage and fruit of the vine. As soon as the grapes are set the soil may receive a good watering with soap- suds or any other liquid manure, to be repeated occa- sionally during the summer if the season is a dry one. During autumn and winter the roots should be kept as dry as circumstances will admit of. In no case would I put a permanent mulching over the roots during summer, as it prevents the warming of the soil by the sun. A few cucumber or melon lights fixed against the wall, so as to cover the vines during autumn, will hasten the ripening of the fruit, and protect it from heavy rains. From what I have seen of the field culture of vines for producing wine in France and Germany, I consider that, by the application of greater horticultural skill, the crops of grapes might be very much increased, but it would be difficult to break through the strong crust of prejudice that exists in favour of things as they are. In Australia, where extensive vineyards are being- planted on the Hunter Eiver and elsewhere, though they have much to learn, they have nothing to unlearn, like their brethren on the continent of Europe. James Elliot Blake, Esq., of Tabelk Vineyard, Melbourne, informed me recently that when they extend their plantations they trench the soil, and then cut young canes from the established vines 6 feet long, and run one end of the cane 3 feet deep into the soil, and that they make very little progress for two years. If, instead of proceeding in this primitive way, they were the previous year to make a long range of trenches, sheltered round the sides by turf, over which during cold or excessively hot weather some sort of cloth could OPEN-AIR CULTURE. 79 be run, they might strike plants from cuttings of two eyes by the thousand, to be transplanted by having their roots properly spread out in the soil as it is being trenched ; such plants would come sooner into a bear- ing state, and make better permanent vines than those planted as at present. And when the great value of the produce of a single acre of vineyard is considered, no ordinary preliminary expense ought to be withheld that would add to its productiveness. A gentleman, who has vineyards in the neighbourhood of Sydney, told me recently, that from one acre of vines he sells 100 worth of grapes in the Sydney market annually, and of those that are not fit for market he makes twelve hundred gallons of wine that he can sell at 3s. 6d. per gallon. As a manure for vineyards nothing will prove so permanently beneficial as broken bones. The green prunings of the vines are also useful as a manure, and should be forked or dug into the soil once a-year ; but the roots of the vines should be disturbed as little as possible. The stakes used for supporting the vines should have their points charred and dipped in pitch while hot, to a couple of inches above their ground line ; and instead of using a stake for each vine, four could be bent so as to meet at a central point, where they could be tied to one stake. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. PUBLISHED MONTHLY, PRICE SIXPENCE, THE GARDENER A MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE AND FLORICULTURE. 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By SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON. Two Vols. Post Octavo, 1, Is. "Gems of thought set upon some of the most important subjects that can engage the atten- tion of men. Except in one or two instances, they are so short that they will not tax the appli- cation of even lazy readers, yet there is not one of them that does not contain a lesson worthy of an abiding place on the handiest shelf of memory." Daily News. Katie Stewart : A True Story, By Mrs Oliphant, Pcap. Octavo, with Frontispiece and Vignette, 4s. "A singularly characteristic Scottish story, most agreeable to read and pleasant to recollect. The charm lies in the faithful and lifelike pictures it presents of Scottish character and customs, and manners and modes of life." Tail's Magazine. Chapters on Churchyards, By Mrs Southey, Second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, 7s. 6d. The Wonder Seeker, or the History of Charles Douglas. By M. FRASER TYTLER, Author of ' Tales of the Great and Brave/ &c. A New Edition, Foolscap, 3s. 6d. Works of Samuel Warren, D.C.L Uniform Edition, Five Volumes, Crown Octavo, 24s. : The Diary of a late Physician. One Vol., Crown Octavo, 5s. 6d. Another Edition, in Two Vols., Foolscap, 12s. Also an Illustrated Edition, in Crown 8vo, handsomely printed, 7s. Cd. Ten Thousand A- Year. Two Volumes, Crown Octavo, 9s. Another Edition, in Three Volumes, Foolscap, 18s. NOW and Then. Crown Octavo, 2s. 6d. Another Edition, Foolscap, 6s. Miscellanies. Crown Octavo, 5s. The Lily and the Bee. Crown 8vo, 2s. Another Edition, Foolscap, 5s. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, TKAVEL& Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Me. By J. H. SPEKE, Captain H.M. Indian Army. Octavo, price 21s. With a Map of Eastern Equatorial Africa by CAPTAIN SPEKE; numerous Illustrations, chiefly from Drawings by CAPTAIN GRANT ; and Portraits, engraved on Steel, of CAPTAINS SPEKE and GRANT. "The volume which Captain Speke has presented to the world possesses more than a geo- graphical interest. It is a monument of perseverance, courage, and temper displayed under difficulties which have perhaps never been equalled." Times. " Captain Speke has not written a noble book so much as he has done a noble deed. The volume which records his vast achievement is but the minor fact the history of his discovery, not the discovery itself : yet even as a literary performance it is worthy of very high praise. It is wholly free from the traces of book manufacture. ... It is, however, a great story that is thus plainly told ; a story of which nearly all the interest lies in the strange facts related, and, more than all, in the crowning fact that it frees us in a large degree from a geographical puzzle which had excited the curiosity of mankind of the most illustrious emperors and communities from very early times." Athenaeum. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan. By LAURENCE OLIPHANT, Private Secretary to Lord Elgin. Illustrated with numerous Engravings in Chromo-Lithography, Maps, and Engravings on Wood, from Original Drawings and Photographs. Second Edition. In Two Volumes Octavo, 21s. "The volumes in which Mr Oliphant has related these transactions will be read with the strongest interest now, and deserve to retain a permanent place in the literary and historical annals of our time." Edinburgh Review. Russian Shores of the Black Sea in the Autumn of 1852, with a Voyage down the Volga and a Tour through the Country of the Don Cossacks. By LAURENCE OLIPHANT, Esq. Octavo, with Map and other Illustra- tions. Fourth Edition, 14s. Minnesota and the Par West, By Laurence Oliphant, Octavo, Illustrated with Engravings, 12s. 6d. "It affords us increased knowledge of the extraordinary resources which await the emigrant at the head of the Great American Waters, and is a lively forecast of the prosperity of the States just emerging into existence in the Heart of the Wilderness. Mr Oliphant has foreseen great future events with a clear eye. " The Times. The Transcaucasian Campaign of the Turkish Army under Omer Pasha : A Personal Narrative. By LAURENCE OLIPHANT, Esq. With Map and Illustrations. Post Octavo, 10s. 6d. Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa : With Explorations from Khartoum on the White Nile to the Eegions of the Equator. By JOHN PETHERICK, F. R.G.S., Her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Soudan. In Octavo, with a Map, 16s. Three Months in the Southern States. April June 1863, By LIEUT. -CoL. FREMANTLE. With Portraits of PRESIDENT DAVIS, GENERALS POLK, LEE, LONGSTREET, BEAUREGARD, AND JOHNSTON. Crown Octavo, 7s. 6d. "The whole of the book is as well worth reading as that published extract. It conveys a very fair idea of what manner of men they are who are now fighting in the South for their indepen- dence ; and being written in a very unpretending style, it is both an agreeable and valuable glimpse of the interior of the Confederacy." Spectator. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. TEAYELS The Punjab and Delhi in 1857 : Being a Narrative of the Measures by which the Punjab was saved and Delhi recovered during the Indian Mutiny. By the Rev. J. CAVE-BROWNE, Chaplain of the Punjab Movable Column. With Plans of the Chief Stations and of the different Engagements, and Portraits of Sir J. Lawrence, Bart., Sir H. Edwardes, Sir R. Montgomery, and Brig. Gen. J. Nicholson. Two Volumes, Post Octavo, 21s. " To those who wish to possess a condensed narrative of the siege of Delhi, but especially of the heroic doings 01' the handful of Englishmen scattered throughout the Punjab, these volumes recommend themselves by their scrupulous accuracy, while to the future historian of the India of 1857 they will prove invaluable." Allen's Indian Mail. ' ' This is a work which will well repay the trouble of perusal. Written by one who was him- self present at many of the scenes he narrates, and who has had free access to the papers of Sir J. Lawrence, Sir R. Montgomery, and Sir H. Edwardes, it comes with all the weight of official authority, and all the vividness of personal narrative. 1 ' Press. The Campaign of Garibaldi in the Two Sicilies : A Per- sonal Narrative. By CHARLES STUART FORBES, Commander, R.N. Post Octavo, with Portraits, 12s. " A volume which contains the best sketch hitherto published of the campaign which put an end to Bourbon rule in the Two Sicilies. It is accompanied with plans of the chief battles ; and its honest unexaggerated record contrasts very favourably with the strained and showy account of the Garibaldians just published by M. Dumas." Examiner. Men and Manners in America, By Capt, Thos, Hamilton, With Portrait of the Author. Foolscap, 7s. 6d. Notes on North America : Agricultural, Economical, and Social. By Professor J. F. W. JOHNSTON. Two Volumes, Post Octavo, 21s. "Professor Johnston's admirable Notes. . . . The very best manual for intelligent emi- grants, whilst to the British agriculturist and general reader it conveys a most complete con- ception of the condition of these prosperous region than all that has hitherto been written." Economist. Journal of a Tour in Greece and the Ionian Islands, By WILLIAM MURE of Caldwell. Two Volumes, Post Octavo, Maps and Plates, 24s. A Cruise in Japanese Waters, By Capt. Sherard Osborn, C,B, Third Edition. Crown Octavo, 5s. life in the Far West, By &, F, Euxton, Esq. Second Edition. Foolscap Octavo, 4s. " One of the most daring and resolute of travellers. ... A volume fuller of excitement is seldom submitted to the public." Athenceum. Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine, By Lieut. VAN DE VELDE. Two Volumes Octavo, with Maps, &c., 1, 10s. " He has contributed much to knowledge of the country, and the unction with which he speaks of the holy places which he has visited, will commend the book to the notice of all religious readers. His illustrations of Scripture are numerous and admirable. " Daily News. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, GEOGKAPHICAL WORKS NEW GENERAL ATLAS, DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY. THE KOYAL ATLAS OP MODERN GEOGRAPHY IN A SERIES OF ENTIRELY ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC MAPS. BY A. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E. F.R.G.S. Author of the " Physical Atlas," &c. With a complete Index of easy reference to each Map, comprising nearly 150,000 Places contained in this Atlas. Imperial Folio, half -bound in russia or morocco, 5, 15s. 6d. Athenaeum, August 10, 1861. Under the name of "The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography," Messrs Blackwood and Sons have published a book of maps, which for care of drawing and beauty of execution appears to leave nothing more to hope for or desire. Science and art have done their best upon this mag- nificent book. Mr A. Keith Johnston answers for the engraving and printing : to those who love clear forms and delicate bold type we need say no more. All that maps should be, these maps are : honest, accurate, intelligible guides to narrative or description Of the many noble atlases prepared by Mr Johnston and published by Messrs Blackwood and Sons, this Royal Atlas will be the most useful to the public, and will deserve to be the most popular. Saturday Review. The completion of Mr Keith Johnston's Royal Atlas of Modern Geography claims a special notice at our hands. While Mr Johnston's maps are certainly unsurpassed by any for legibility and uniformity of drawing, as well as for accuracy and judicious selection, this eminent geographer's Atlas has a distinguishing merit in the fact that each map is accompanied by a special index of remarkable fulness. The labour and trouble of reference are in this way reduced to a minimum. . . . . The number of places enumerated in the separate indices is enormous. We believe, indeed, that every name which appears in the maps is registered in the tables ; and as each place is indicated by two letters, which refer to the squares formed by the parallels of latitude and longitude, the method of using the index is extremely easy and convenient We know no series of maps which we can more warmly recommend. The accuracy, wherever we have attempted to put it to the test, is really astonishing. Morning Herald. The culmination of all attempts to depict the face of the world appears in the Royal Atlas, than which it is impossible to conceive anything more perfect. Guardian. This is, beyond question, the most splendid and luxurious, as well as the most useful and complete of all existing atlases. Examiner. There has not, we believe, been produced for general public use a body of maps equal in beauty and completeness to the Royal Atlas just issued by Mr A. K. Johnston. Scotsman. An almost daily reference to, and comparison of, it with others, since the publication of the first part some two years ago until now, enables us to say, without the slightest hesitation, that this is by far the most complete and authentic atlas that has yet been issued. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS Index Greographicus : Being a list, Alphabetically ar- RANGED, of the PRINCIPAL PLACES ON THE GLOBE, with the COUNTRIES AND SUBDIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH THEY ARE SITUATED, and their LATI- TUDES AND LONGITUDES. Compiled specially with reference to KEITH JOHN- STON'S ROYAL ATLAS, but applicable to all Modern Atlases and Maps. In One Volume Imperial Octavo, pp. 676, price 21s. The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena, By Alex. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., &c., Geographer to the Queen for Scotland. A New and Enlarged Edition, consisting of 35 Folio Plates, 27 smaller ones, printed in Colours, with 135 pages of Letterpress, and Index. SUBJECTS TREATED OK. Geography and Orography, .... 11 Plates. Hydrography, 6 Meteorology and Magnetism, .... 6 Botanical Geography, 2 Zoological Geography, 6 Ethnology and Statistics, 4 Imperial Folio, half-bound morocco, 8, 8s. "The Physical Atlas of Mr Keith Johnston a perfect treasure of compressed information." Sir John Herschel. " There is no map in this noble Atlas upon which we might not be tempted to write largely. Almost every one suggests a volume of reflection, and suggests it by presenting, in a few hours, accurate truths which it would be the labour of a volume to enforce in words, and by imprinting them, at the same time, upon the memory with such distinctness that their outlines are not likely to be afterwards eifaced. The ' Physical Atlas ' is a somewhat costly work, reckoning it only by its paper ; but upon its paper is stamped an amount of knowledge that could scarcely be acquired without the reading of as many books as would cost seven times the price." Examiner. "This Atlas ought to have a place in every good library. ... We know of no work con- taining such copious and exact information as to all the physical circumstances of the earth on which we live. " Quarterly Review. The Physical Atlas. By Alexander Keith Johnston, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., Geographer to the Queen for Scotland. Reduced from the Imperial Folio. This Edition Contains Twenty-Five Maps, including a Palae- ontological and Geological Map of the British Islands, with Descriptive Letter- press, and a very copious Index. . In Imperial Quarto, half-bound morocco, 2, 12s. 6d. " Executed with remarkable care, and is as accurate, and, for all educational purposes, as valu- able as the splendid large work (by the same author) which has now a European reputation." Eclectic Review. Atlas of Scotland, 31 Maps of the Counties of Scotland, coloured. Bound in roan, price 10s. 6d. Each County may be had separately, in Cloth Case, Is. A Geological Map of Europe, exhibiting the different Systems of Rocks according to the latest researches, and from Inedited materials. By Sir R. I. MURCHISON, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland ; and JAMES NICOL, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen. Constructed by ALEX. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., &c., Geographer to the Queen, Author of the '"Physical Atlas," &c. Scale, j~^ of Nature, 76 miles to an inch. Four Sheets Imperial, beautifully printed in Colours. Size, 4 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 5 inches. In Sheets, 3, 3s ; in a Cloth Case, 4to, 3, 10s. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. GEOGRAPHICAL WOEKS Keith Johnston's School Atlases : i. General and Descriptive Geography, exhibiting the Actual and Comparative Extent of all the Countries in the World, with their present Political Divisions. A New and Enlarged Edition. Corrected to the present time. With a complete Index. 26 Maps. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. II. Physical Geography, illustrating, in a Series of Original Designs the Elementary Facts of Geology, Hydrology, Meteorology, and Natural History. A New and Enlarged Edition. 20 Maps, including coloured Geological Maps of Europe and of the British Isles. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. Hi. Classical Geography: Comprising, in Twenty-three Plates, Maps and Plans of all the important Countries and Localities referred to by Classical Authors ; accompanied by a pronouncing Index of Places, by T. HARVEY, M.A. Oxon. A New and Revised Edition. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. IV. Astronomy. Edited by J. R. Hind, Esq., F.R.A.S., &c. Notes and Descriptive Letterpress to each Plate, embodying all recent Discoveries in Astronomy. 18 Maps. Half-bound, 12s. 6d. V. Elementary School Atlas of General and Descriptive Geogra- phy for the Use of Junior Classes. A New and Cheaper Edition. 20 Maps, including a Map of Canaan and Palestine. Half-bound, 5s. " They are as superior to all School Atlases within our knowledge, as were the larger works of the same Author in advance of those that preceded them." Educational Times. " Decidedly the best School Atlases we have ever seen." English Journal of Education. "... The Physical A tlas seems to us particularly well executed. . . . The last gene- ration had no such help to learning as is afforded in these excellent elementary maps. The Class- ical Atlas is a great improvement on what has usually gone by that name ; not only is it fuller, but in some cases it gives the same country more than once in different periods of time. Thus it approaches the special value of a historical atlas. . . . The General Atlas is wonderfully full and accurate for its scale. . . . Finally, the Astronomical A tlas, in which Mr Hind is respon- sible for the scientific accuracy of the maps, supplies an admitted educational want. No better companion to an elementary astronomical treatise could be found than this cheap and convenient collection of maps." Saturday Review. " The plan of these Atlases is admirable, and the excellence of the plan is rivalled by the beauty of the execution. . . . The best security for the accuracy and substantial value of a School Atlas is to have it from the hands of a man like our Author, who has perfected his skill by the execution of much larger works, and gained a character which he will be careful not to jeopar- dise by attaching his name to anything that is crude, slovenly, or superficial." Scotsman. Atlas of Plans of Countries, Battles, Sieges, & Sea-Fights, Illustrative of the History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Battle of Waterloo. Constructed by A. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., &c. &c. With Vocabulary of Military and Marine Terms. 109 Plates, Demy Quarto, price 3, 3s. Another Edition, in Crown Quarto, 1, 11s. 6d. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS A lew Map of Europe, By A, Keith Johnston, O,,S,E,, F.RG.S., Geographer to the Queen. The Map is fully coloured, and measures 4 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 5 inches. Price, mounted on Cloth and Mahogany Roller, Varnished, or Folded in Quarto in a handsome Cloth Case, 21s. Geological Map of Scotland, From the most Recent Au- thorities and Personal Observations. By JAMES NICOL, F.R.S.E., &c., Profes- sor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen. With Explanatory Notes. The Topography by ALEXANDER KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., &c. Scale, 10 miles to an inch. In Cloth Case, 21s. A Small Geological Map of Europe, From Keith John- ETON'S School " Physical Atlas." Printed in Colours, Sixpence. A Geological Map of the British Isles, Prom the same, Printed in Colours, Sixpence. Hand Atlases : Being the Maps of Keith Johnston's School Atlases on Large Paper, and half-bound, full size, Imperial Quarto. Physical Geography : Illustrating, in a Series of Original Designs, the Elementary Facts of Geology, Hydrology, Meteorology, and Natural History. In Imperial Quarto, half-bound morocco, 25s. Classical Geography: Comprising, in Twenty-three Plates, Maps and Plans of all the important Countries and Localities referred to by Classical Authors. In Imperial Quarto, half-bound morocco, 25s. General and Descriptive Geography : Exhibiting the Actual and Comparative extent of all the Countries in the World, with their pre- sent political divisions. New and 'Enlarged Edition. In Imperial Quarto, half-bound morocco, 25s. Astronomy: Comprising, in Eighteen Plates, a Complete Series of Illustrations of the Heavenly Bodies, drawn with the greatest care from Original and Authentic Documents. By ALEX. KEITH JOHNSTON, F.K.S.E. &c. Edited by J. R. HIND, F.R.A.S., &c. In Imperial Quarto, half-morocco, 21s. " The Atlas is undoubtedly the most beautiful work of its class that has ever been published and in several respects the most instructive. " The Astronomer Royal. "To say that Mr Hind's Atlas is the best thing of the kind is not enough it has no com- petitor. " A thenceum. Geological and Palseontological Map of the British Islands, including Tables of the Fossils of the different Epochs, &c. &c., from the Sketches and Notes of Professor EDWARD FORBES. With Illustrative and Explanatory Letterpress. 21s. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, AGEICULTUKAL AND KUKAL AFFAIKS The Book of the Farm, Detailing the labours of the Farmer, Farm-Steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle- man, Field- worker, and Dairymaid, and forming a safe Monitor for Students in Practical Agriculture. By HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E. Two Volumes, Royal Octavo, 3, handsomely bound in cloth, with upwards of 600 Illustrations. "The best book I have ever met with." Professor Johnston. "We have thoroughly examined these volumes ; but to give a full notice of their varied and valuable contents would occupy a larger space than we can conveniently devote to their dis- cussion ; we therefore, in general terms, commend them to the careful study of every young man who wishes to become a good practical farmer. rimes. The Book of Farm Implements and Machines, By James SLIGHT and R. SCOTT BURN. Edited by HENRY STEPHENS, F. R. S. E. Illus- trated with 876 Engravings. Royal Octavo, uniform with the " Book of the Farm," half-bound, 2, 2s. The Book of Farm Buildings : their Arrangement and Construction. By HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E., and R. SCOTT BURN. Royal Octavo, with 1045 Illustrations. Uniform with the " Book of the Farm." Half- ' bound, 1, 11s. 6d. The Book of the Garden. By Charles M'Intosh. In Two large Volumes, Royal Octavo, embellished with 1353 Engravings. Each Volume may le had separately viz. I. ARCHITECTURAL and ORNAMENTAL. On the Formation of Gardens Con- struction, Heating, and Ventilation of Fruit and Plant Houses, Pits, Frames, and other Garden Structures, with Practical Details. Illustrated by 1073 Engravings, pp. 776. 2, 10s. II. PRACTICAL GARDENING, Contains Directions for the Culture of the Kitchen Garden, the Hardyrfruit Garden, the Forcing Garden, and Flower Garden, includ- ing Fruit and Plant Houses, with Select Lists of Vegetables, Fruits, and Plants. Pp. 868, with 279 Engravings. 1, 17s. 6d. " In the construction of every kind of building required in a garden, the ' structural ' section of the work will be found to contain a large amount of information suitable alike for buildings and gardens. Mr M'Intosh being himself one of the most experienced garden architects of our time, minute details are given, so that the expense of even a pit, up to a garden replete with every necessary erection, may be at once ascertained, a matter of no small importance to gentle- men about either to form new gardens, or improve such as already exist. ... On the whole, this volume on structural gardening, both in compilation and artistical execution, deserves our warmest commendation. " The second volume is of a cultural character, and has been got up with great care and re- search. It embodies the opinions and practice of the older writers on Horticulture, and also, what is of more importance, the experience of our eminent modern gardeners on the subject, together with the opinions of our author, who has studied and practised the art for upwards of half a century, both in this country and on the Continent. . . . We therefore feel justified in recommending Mr M'Intosh's two excellent volumes to the notice of the public." Gardeners' Chronicle. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. AGEICULTUKAL AND ETJEAL AFFAIES Practical System of Farm Book-Keeping : Being that re- commended in the " Book of the Farm" by H. STEPHENS. Eoyal Octavo, 2s. 6d. Also, SEVEN FOLIO ACCOUNT-BOOKS, printed and ruled in accordance with the System, the whole being specially adapted for keeping, by an easy and accurate method, an account of all the transactions of the Farm. A detailed Prospectus may be had from the Publishers. Price of the complete set of Eight Books, 1, 4s. 6d. Also, A LABOUR ACCOUNT OF THE ESTATE, 2s. 6d. "We have no hesitation in saying, that of the many systems of keeping farm-accounts which are in vogue, there is not one which will bear comparison with that just issued by Messrs Black- wood, according to the recommendations of Mr Stephens, in his invaluable ' Book of the Farm.' The great characteristic of this system is its simplicity. When once the details are mastered, which it will take very little trouble to accomplish, it will be prized as the clearest method to show the profit and loss of business, and to prove how the soundest and surest calculations can be arrived at. We earnestly recommend a trial of the entire series of books they must be used as a whole to be thoroughly profitable for we are convinced the verdict of our agricultural friends who make such a trial will speedily accord with our own." Bell's Messenger. Agricultural Statistics of Scotland, Report by the High- land and Agricultural Society of Scotland to the Board of Trade, for 1855, 1856, and 1857. Is. 6d. each. Ainslie's Treatise on Land-Surveying, A new and enlarged Edition, edited by WILLIAM GALBRAITH, M:A., F.R. A.S. One Volume, Octavo, with a Volume of Plates in Quarto, 21s. "The best book on surveying with which I am acquainted." W. RUTHERFORD, LL.D.,F.R.A.S., Eoyal Military Academy, Woolwich. Reports of the Association for Promoting Improvement in the Dwellings and Domestic Condition of Agricultural Labourers in Scotland. Seven Reports, 1855-61. Is. each. The Forester: A Practical Treatise on the Planting, Rearing, and Management of Forest Trees. By JAMES BROWN, Wood Manager to the Earl of Seafield. Third Edition, greatly enlarged, with numerous Engrav- ings on Wood. Royal Octavo, 30s. "What we have often stated in these columns we now repeat, that the book before us is. the most useful guide to good Arboriculture in the English language. The Author is a man of great experience hi Scotch forestry, and, moreover, is well grounded in the science of tree cultivation ; so that he does not fall into the mistakes which mere theorists, or mere practicals, have each committed on so large a scale, in too many great places. We will even add, that it has been to the advice and instruction given in two former editions of the ' Forester," now exhausted, that the general improvement in timber management may be fairly ascribed." Gardeners' Chronicle. "Beyond all doubt this is the best work on the subject of Forestry extant." Gardeners' Journal. Handbook of the Mechanical Arts concerned in the Con- struction and Arrangement of Dwellings and other Buildings ; Including Car^ pentry, Smith-work, Iron-framing, Brick-making, Columns, Cements, Well-sink- ing, Enclosing of Land, Road-making, &c. By R. SCOTT BURN. Crown Octavo, with 504 Engravings on Wood, 6s. 6d. PUBLISHED BY W. BLACKWOOD AND SONS, AGRICULTURAL AND EURAL AFFAIES The Tear-Book of Agricultural Facts, 1859 and 1860. Edited by R. SCOTT BURN. Foolscap Octavo, 5s. each. 1861 and 1862, 4s. each. Practical Ventilation, as applied to Public, Domestic, and Agricultural Structures. By R. SCOTT BURN, Engineer. 6s. Dwellings for the Working Classes : their Construction and Arrangement; with Plans, Elevations, and Specifications, suggestive of Structures adapted to the Agricultural and Manufacturing Districts. By R. SCOTT BURN. Quarto, with numerous Diagrams, 3s. The West of Ireland as a Field for Investment. By James CAIRD, Farmer, Baldoon. Octavo, with a Map, 6s. The Practical Planter: Containing Directions for the Planting of Waste Land and Management of Wood, with a new Method of Rear- ing the Oak. By THOMAS CRUIKSHANK, Forester at Careston. Octavo, 12s. Elkington's System of Draining : A Systematic Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Draining Land, adapted to the various Situations and Soils of England and Scotland, drawn up from the Communications of Joseph Elkington, by J. JOHNSTONE. Quarto, 10s. 6d. Trigonometrical Surveying, Levelling, and Railway En- gineering. By WILLIAM GALBRAITH, M.A. Octavo, 7s. 6d. The Preparation of Cooked Food for the Fattening of Cattle, and the advantage of Using it along with Cut Straw, Hay, Turnips, or other Vegetables. By THOMAS HARKNESS. 6d. Journal of Agriculture, and Transactions of the Highland AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. OLD SERIES, 1828 to 1843, 21 vols 330 NEW SERIES, 1843 to 1851, 8 vols. . . . . 220 The Rural Economy of England, Scotland, and Ireland, By LEONCE DE; LAVERGNE. Translated from the French. With Notes by a Scottish Farmer. In Octavo, 12s. "One of the best works on the philosophy of agricultxire and of agricultural political economy that has appeared. " Spectator. On the Management of Landed Property in the Highlands of Scotland. By GEORGE G. MACKAT, C.E. Crown Octavo, Is. 6d. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL AFFAIRS Professor Johnston's "Works : Experimental Agriculture. Being the Results of Past, and Suggestions for Future, Experiments in Scientific and Practical Agriculture. 8s. Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology. Eighth Edition, 6s. 6d. "Nothing hitherto published has at all equalled it, both as regards true science and sound common sense." Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. A Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology. Fifty- seventh Edition, Is. "The extent to which this little Catechism has been circulated at home, its translation into nearly every European language, and its introduction into the Schools of Germany, Holland, Flanders, Italy, Sweden, Poland, and South and North America, while it has been gratifying to the Author, has caused him to take additional pains in improving and adding to the amount of useful information, in the present edition." Preface. On the Use of Lime in Agriculture. 6s. Instructions for the Analysis of Soils. Fourth Edition, 2s. An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Prevailing Disease and Present Condition of the Larch Plantations in Great Britain. By CHARLES M353>s>? r GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY 6000^371013 T -H agjgm EH fl