154 



THE GARDENER. 



[April 



paper. During very hot dry weather he waters freely with liquid man- 

 ure made by mixing sheep and cow dung in water, with a handful 

 of guano added, and sometimes soot. 



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Our ideal of a Vine-border would be some 12 or 14 feet of a border 

 made of such compost as we described in the first of these papers, 

 terminating in a weU-formed Asparagus -plantation, which was not 

 likely to be disturbed for a generation at least, and where the Vine- 

 roots could rove at pleasure. Such a border as that we formed for a 

 Muscat-house at Wrotham Park, in the county of Middlesex, in 1848, 

 with the drawback, that there was a walk between the Vine-border 

 and the Asparagus -brake. We, however, made the walk of such 

 materials that the roots could easily cross it ; and in reply to queries 

 Ave have lately addressed to Mr Edlington, under whose able manage- 

 ment the house is at this time, we have the following : "The roots of 

 the Muscat Vines have traversed the border, which is 15 feet wide, 

 passed underneath the walk at a depth of 2 feet, where they are as 

 thick as walking-sticks, and are to be found in abundance at a dis- 

 tance of 60 feet across the Asparagus-brake, in which they seem to 

 luxuriate amazingly. The Vines are in fine health, and every year 

 they bear enormous crops without a single shanked berry." Our own 

 opinion is, that no house in Britain has produced the same weight of 

 fruit in proportion to its size that the one in question has done within 

 these twenty years, and in great measure, as we think, owing to the 

 access of the roots of the Vines to the Asparagus-ground. 



