562 



MULCHING GRAPEVINES. 



crimson, relieved with white rays, and very 

 graceful and showy, — hanging in festoons 

 on the plant. Just before the frost comes, 

 I reduce the top a little, take up the pot, 



and carry all into the green-house, where 

 it will flower a month longer. 



Yours, An Amateur. 



New- York, May IS, 1850. 



TAN-BANK FOR MULCHING GRAPEVINES. 



BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND, BURLINGTON, N. J. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir: I am 

 much pleased to find that my experience in 

 regard to the use of tan-bark on grapevines 

 is corroborated by that of Mr. Ferris, as 

 given by him in the Horticulturist for May. 

 My present object, however, is to offer a 

 few remarks on a subject for which his let- 

 ter furnishes me with a text. He says he 

 had thought of giving his experience be- 

 fore ; but " concluded that old gardeners 

 would laugh at me for bringing coals to 

 Newcastle." 



I have no doubt that many a person is 

 prevented from giving items of his experi- 

 ence to the public by the same feeling; 

 which is, indeed, a natural one, but in my 

 opinion one which should be overcome. If 

 the object of the Horticulturist were to in- 

 struct only " old gardeners," it would be 

 presumptuous in any but experienced and 

 scientific men to speak. But I regard the 

 readers of the Horticulturist as an assembly 

 of friends, who meet together once a month 

 for mutual instruction and entertainment. 

 Among them are a large portion who are 

 no farther along than myself; and I con- 

 sider it a sort of duty in each to impart 

 whatever information will be serviceable to 

 others. 



The common feeling, however, is that 

 such and such a matter of one's own expe- 

 rience is too trifling to be made public; 

 whereas, in truth, such practical instances 



of the application of principles are often of 

 great value, and contain precisely the kind 

 of information which one cannot get from 

 scientific works. 



Will you pardon ine for alluding again 

 to my own communication, for the sake of 

 illustration ? When I first thought of ap- 

 plying tan to the border of my vinery, (in- 

 tending it only for a mulching,) I inquired 

 of several of my neighbors, some of whom 

 were " old gardeners," whether there was 

 any danger of injury to the vines, — the tan 

 being, as I said, fresh from the yard. Not 

 one had ever seen it used in a fresh state ; 

 and almost all thought it dangerous to ap- 

 ply it without composting it for a year at 

 least. A single season's experience con- 

 tradicted all their theories ; and having oc- 

 casion to write you, I thought the fact thus 

 established worth mentioning for the use of 

 others. It would have saved me much 

 doubt and anixety if I could have known it 

 six months before. 



So much for that. Now one word on a 

 different subject. Considering the writers 

 for the Horticulturist in the light of speak- 

 ers before an audience, and perceiving in 

 the May number a notice of "Jeffreys," 

 which sounds very much like a hiss from 

 one side of the house, I wish to say that 

 there is a knot of us here who are ready to 

 come down in opposition to it with feet, 

 hands and umbrellas. Without having the 



