THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 5 



which proved so successful, that we hope for its periodical continuance in 

 the centre of the metropolis. That show did more to exhibit the high 

 position to which horticulture has attained in this country than any similar 

 exhibition for many years past. Even in pears, those from the Continent 

 were quite eclipsed by samples of home growth ; and as to apples, we 

 believe that, whether we regard the variety of sorts, or the general excel- 

 lence of their condition, such a collection was never got together in this 

 or any other country. The classified specimens of Messrs. Kivers and 

 Paul were characterized by the high cultural and exhibitional attainments 

 of those growers ; and among the new sorts were many destined to enrich 

 the orchards of posterity with valuable additions. 



Grapes were particularly fine and abundant last season, and those at 

 Willis's Rooms required, as puffiing tradesmen say, " to be seen to be 

 appreciated." The White Tokays from Trentham, the Muscats from Keele 

 Hall, and Black Hamburghs from everywhere, were grapes indeed ; and, 

 as telling the story of the season truly, Mr. Beaton's black grapes, 

 ripened on an open wall at Surbiton, were such as we cannot often 

 expect to see ; though the weather must not carry off his share of the 

 eulogy as an experienced experimenter, and a master of the art he has 

 so nobly laboured to improve. 



Those said grapes bring us to consider for a moment what special addi- 

 tions have been made to our knowledge during the past year ; and among 

 the most important, Mr. Beaton's recent elucidations of the theory and 

 practice of vine-pruning must be referred to. The question " how to 

 prune a vine " has had its share of agitation, and, with all the perfections 

 of modern grape culture, we have yet much to learn as to the fundamen- 

 tals of this particular branch of horticulture. I shall, in the February 

 number of the "Floral Would," present a resume of Mr. Beaton's experi- 

 ments and their results ; and, for the present, content myself with saying 

 that, as far as I can judge — and I have pruned a vine or two in my time — 

 Donald Beaton has let more light into the vinery than either Hoare, or 

 Knight, or Smith, or Lindley, or, indeed, all the writers and cultivators 

 put together, have done ever before. 



As one thing suggests another, so, again, it occurs to me that we have 

 made great advances towards a knowledge of the causes and remedies of 

 those two great horticultural calamities, the vine mildew, and the potatoe 

 blight. Endless are the suggested methods of prevention and cure, but 

 the virtues of sulphur, in both cases, are coming to be acknowledged as 

 pre-eminent. The Rev. W. J. Berkeley was the first to show how sulphur 

 might be employed to check the potatoe disease, by using cut sets of large 

 potatoes instead of whole sets of small ones, and dusting the moist parts 

 so as to act on the interior of the pulp, instead of any external application. 

 Numerous experiments have proved the efficacy of this practice, but it 

 cannot yet be said with such success as to constitute sulphur a specific.^ 

 Admitting its value, as proved, there is a still more effectual way of 

 dealing with the enemy, by adopting a more rational routine culture — 

 planting in autumn instead of spring, or at least no later than February — 

 choosing sorts which ripen early, and which may be taken up before the 

 late summer and autumn rains come on, which invariably precede the 

 outbreak of the disease, and seem more closely connected with its origin 



