i88i.] LOW NIGHT-TEMPERATURE FOR VINES. 461 



laid on 6 inches thick and mixed thoroughly into the soil by digging. 

 A layer of mushroom-manure is laid on the surface and worked round 

 the roots of the plants when put out. 



Trenching. — Trenching I find to be the greatest possible help to 

 successful kitchen-gardening. Every bit of ground bare in winter we 

 trench, not only turning over the soil a couple of spits in depth, but 

 shovelling the loose soil over as well and digging up the bottom of the 

 trench. Decayed rubbish may be got rid of by being put in the bottom 

 of the trenches, and in all cases a heavy dressing of dung is of advan- 

 tage. You can take crop after crop without any trouble off land 

 which is kept well trenched and manured. R. P. B. 



LOW NIGHT-TEMPERATURE FOR VINES. 



In a leading article in the ' Gardener ' of August last, and containing 

 much with which I quite agree, occurs the following passage : " In 

 our practice we have never been able to corroborate the teaching of 

 those who advocate a low temperature as being best for such varieties 

 as the Muscat of Alexandria and others of a similar habit, for we have 

 invariably found that these set best with a brisk, indeed a high, tem- 

 perature j and we have seen Muscats that have been worked low at the 

 blooming period which were not set at all." As I have, perhaps, had 

 more to do with recommending low temperatures than anybody else, 

 and have indeed been characterised as the ^'Author of low night-tem- 

 peratures for the Vine " in some of the horticultural papers, whether 

 that may mean credit or blame, I have to ask you to allow me to reply 

 to the above damaging but exceptional testimony against the " cool 

 system." Since I first drew attention to the subject about nine years 

 ago, numbers have adopted low temperatures, and of those who have 

 from time to time written to record their experience in the matter, 

 your correspondent is the only one who has confessed to having failed 

 — all have succeeded but him. That I reckon a fact of some import- 

 ance. Only lately an able and frequent contributor to the ' Journal of 

 Horticulture,' but unknown to me, said in reference to what I had 

 written on the subject, that "Nothing in modern times has done so 

 much to produce improved health in Vines and better quality in 

 Grapes as the lowering of night-temperatures. There may be nothing 

 new under the sun, but the high night-temperatures of a few years ago 

 are a thing of the past, because those temperatures were destructive. 

 I do not mean to say that nobody practises the old method, but I 

 know that most of our best growers have abandoned the practice." 

 The same writer only a week or two ago, in the same paper, stated 

 that he cropped his Vine-canes regularly at the rate of from 30 lb. to 

 50 lb. to the rod ] adding that his command of heat was all that could 



