186 THE GARDENER. [April 



RAISING VINES FROM EYES ON TURVES. 



I should not have alluded to this subject had your correspondent, 

 Mr Hinds, not mentioned names in describing the system of raising 

 Vines from eyes on turves, which he has adopted and found so suc- 

 cessful. I have just to say, that the plan recommended by Mr Hinds 

 is that which was first practised and recommended by me ; and his 

 instructions in the matter of details are essentially the same as those 

 furnished by me in ' The Garden ' some years ago, where Mr Hinds 

 no doubt gained his information partly, for he has had other and 

 exceptional opportunities of becoming acquainted with my sod-system 

 of striking Vine eyes. It is difficult indeed to believe that Mr 

 Hinds was not conscious that it was my plan he described when he 

 wrote, more especially as Mr Thomson's system and mine have been 

 frequently commented upon in nearly all the horticultural papers. 



JSTo one would imagine, in fact, from Mr Hinds' statements in ' The 

 Gardener,' that he had the least acquaintance with Mr Thomson's 

 system, which, as Mr Thomson himself stated in 'The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle ' years ago, has " nothing in common " with, mine, except 

 that we both used turf — the ultimate object of the two systems being 

 quite different, and the mode of raising the eyes also. The plan re- 

 commended by Mr Hinds is one adopted here with nearly every 

 Vine we have raised since 1864. Mr Thomson's system he will find 

 in the back volumes of 'The Gardener' and 'Journal of Horticulture.' 



J. Simpson. 



WORTLEY. 



TESTING THERMOMETERS. 



The London gardening weeklies, during the late severe winter, seldom issued 

 a copy without containing some warning, complaint, or instruction in regard 

 to Thermometers. The low readings recorded in some of the ordinarily favoured 

 counties were received with reservation, and the untrustworthiness of instru- 

 ments was accredited with the extreme temperature indicated. Thermometers 

 may be corrected as follows : — 



The common and misleading idea that " freezing-point," as marked on the 

 scale of the Thermometer, is the point at which water freezes is an error. 

 Under different circumstances, which it is not our present purpose to explain, 

 water freezes at different temperatures below what Thermometer - makers 

 understand as "freezing-point," of course, or exactly at it. But while the 

 air may sink below freezing-point before water freezes, the person who watches 

 the first indication of ice to know whether his Thermometer be correct or not, 

 may be led into error ; and the air in contact with grass may be freezing, while 

 3 feet from the ground it may be a good many degrees higher. Evidently, 

 then, the freezing-point cannot be found this way, although many persons are 

 astonished at the supposed vagaries of Thermometers. But ice melts invariably 



