518 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



And now let me say tliat I do not tliink the system as pursued by 

 Mr Simpson one that will be followed by gardeners. Like many more 

 gardeners, I had an opportunity of seeing some of the Grapes produced 

 by Mr Simpson under his system at the Edinburgh Show in September, 

 and nothing stronger could have been adduced as condemnatory of the 

 system than these Grapes. It is to be presumed that these were the 

 very best examples of Grape-culture which Mr Simpson could find to 

 send. I do not know how the exhibition Grapes were grown, as, of 

 course, they might all have been produced in low night-temperatures, 

 or, on the other hand, under orthodox conditions ; but any way, the 

 Wortley Grapes were inferior in all respects to those staged for prizes. 

 Instead of cutting any berries out, in one or two of the sorts it would 

 have improved them to have produced a few more berries to fill them 

 up with. The Show was held in the second week of September, and 

 the Grapes were then unripe. Mr Simpson states they " are in flower 

 early in the year." If so, how are they managed that they were unripe 

 at the above date ? I contrive to get ours in flower in May, and ripe 

 before September is out. It would take us to fire pretty hard to get 

 such Grapes as those under discussion ripe at the end of October, and 

 then they would not have the flavour of Grapes ripened earlier. That 

 the Vines had been too late in being ripened the previous season, was 

 quite apparent from the loose make-up of some of the specimens. Mr 

 Simpson states in a contemporary that he has had letters asking for 

 advice as to how to proceed under the system he advocates, these 

 Grapes having convinced the writers that it was better than the old 

 system. I make bold to state my belief that no gardener who knows 

 a good bunch of Grapes has asked for advice. Had I seen these 

 examples eight years ago, I am afraid I might still have been indulg- 

 ing in high night-temperatures. When Grapes have got the colour on 

 fairly, they require a high temperature to ripen them properly, 

 and, what is of as much consequence, to ripen the wood of the Vines 

 as well. Fuel saved at the expense of the Vines and the Grapes is a 

 kind of retrenchment which does not pay. 



It may be a matter of some amusement to those of your readers who 

 do not read the * Journal of Horticulture,' to know that the writer to 

 whom Mr Simpson refers was taken to task by a gentleman in another 

 paper, for stating that he " cropped his Vine-canes regularly at the rate 

 of from 30 lb. to 50 lb. to the rod," and asked therein to furnish his 

 name, and the whereabouts he contrived to obtain such incredible 

 results. It is generally understood that the gentleman who adduces 

 the testimony of this writer in support of his system of low night- 

 temperature in the ' Gardener ' for October is also the one who 

 thus discredits that writer's statement in another paper a month 

 earlier. But more strange still is this fact, that, in the ' Journal of 

 Horticulture' for October 6th, this same writer, who had seen Mr 

 Simpson's Grapes at Edinburgh, condemns Mr Simpson's " position ; '^ 



