i88i.] THE GRAPE-VINE DISCUSSION. 517 



ply of robust healthy cuttings; and a good deal depends on getting a 

 fair start with them. Sickly, half-starved cuttings, or those which 

 have been drawn up in a dark close place, are never satisfactory. The 

 general, culture of this useful plant is so well known, that little more 

 need be said about it. Cuttings root in a close cool frame, but quicker 

 with the help of a little bottom-heat ; but the latter should never be 

 used longer than just to produce roots. They may be rooted in groups 

 in 6-inch pots, or singly in small ones — the latter is the best plan — 

 and from these they may be shifted at once into their blooming pots. 

 The compost should always be rich and rough, and drainage secure. 

 Plunging the pots in summer in ashes, sawdust, or ordinary soil, pre- 

 vents them from suffering so much for want of water where there is 

 any danger of their l)eing stinted in this ; but above all things to 

 avoid in successful Chrysanthemum culture, imperfect and insufficient 

 watering is the greatest. J. Muir. 



THE GRAPE-VINE DISCUSSION. 



As a gardener who has worked Grapes on the low night-temperature 

 system, you will perhaps allow me to say something on the subject, as 

 opened up by Mr Simpson in last month's ' Gardener.' I have before 

 now stated my opinion on this system in the ' Gardener;' and without 

 saying that it is the best system for the production of the very 

 highest class Grapes, I have taken up this position, that good family 

 Grapes can be produced thus — at the lowest possible expenditure 

 in labour, fuel, and wear of vineries ; at the same time, the Vines 

 stand heavy cropping better, and will last longer than under high- 

 steaming temperatures. When I restate that our vineries are not 

 damped down, nor the Vines at any time syringed, something like the 

 saving of labour over the old system will be at once apparent. As 

 regards saving of fuel, that will go without saying ; and as to the saving 

 in the wear of vineries, when it is understood that at no time is the 

 atmosphere of the houses in a saturated condition, or the houses shut 

 up, that also will be apparent enough ; while as regards the improve- 

 ment in Vines, that of course has to be tried and proved to be believed. 

 The moot point, which has divided certain growers, has been as to the 

 setting of the berries in low night-temperatures. I am inclined to 

 believe that, other circumstances being right, a few degrees either way 

 does not matter at this period ; though at the same time I can fully 

 endorse what was stated in the xlugust issue, that " ^Muscats worked 

 low at the blooming period were not set at all — stoneless or seedless, 

 in fact." This is just what we find in our old Muscats. The bunches 

 are full, but at least fifty per cent of the berries are without seeds. 

 Whether they would stone if set in a higher temperature I do not say, 

 but I hope to find how young Vines behave under both conditions of 

 temperature. 



