122 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



In 1810 there came a great revival of dancing in Eng- 

 land. Raikes in his journal recorded that the sports of 

 that day ceased lounging of mornings and practiced new 

 dances, prancuig about with a chair when a partner was 

 not at hand. 



Twenty-six years later, a dance known as the lancers 

 swept into popularity. Four society girls picked it up 

 in Turkey and inoculated London. Queen Victoria was 

 a lancers fiend and ordered it included in the dance 

 programme at Buckingham Palace, where it still is re- 

 tained. 



Then came tlie polka epidemic of 1844, beside which 

 the present tango craze is mild. 



The polka was an old peasant dance, handed down 

 with folk-lore. Josef Neruda saw a girl dance it in the 

 Elbeleinitz market place. He showed it to some friends 

 in Prague. From there it spread to Vienna and Paris. 



Then Cellarius, a Frenchman, probably the greatest 

 dancing master who ever lived, took the polka to London 

 and cleaned up several fortunes with it. The newspapers 

 said that he was kept so busy giving lessons that the 

 ■one hour between 2 and 3 a. m. was the only time he 

 Iiad in which to sleep. 



None of the freak dances of that time lasted. They 

 were given names like ragtime music : Up Tails All, 

 Lumps of Pudding, The Bath, The Ladies' Misfortune, 

 Rub Her Down With .Straw, and there was one dance 

 ■called An Old Man's a Bagful o' Bones. 



Here in .'\merica we have originated only one interna- 

 tional dance : the two-step. 



Most of our other dances were devised by plantation 

 darkeys — cakewalks, reels, clogs and breakdowns — and 

 never "took" abroad, except on the stage. 



The roller skating obsession of the early eighties put 

 dancing in the background : and when roller skates got 

 common during the nineties, dancing did not come back — 

 bicycles came in. 



Then bicycles got so common that when they went by 

 boys yelled "Tee !" and for a time it looked good for 

 dancing. 



But along came automobiles, and it was not until the 

 novelty of riding in an automobile began to wear oS that 

 the recent revival of dancing began. ., 



The tango did not originate in Argentine. 

 It came from Tango, Japan, a district on the southern 

 shore of Wasaka Ba}- down on the west coast, where it 

 originated some three hundred years ago in the city of 

 Hashidate. 



Hashidate, Matsushima and Miyashima are the Jap- 

 anese pleasure resorts corresponding to our Newport, 

 Atlantic City and Tuxedo. 



The music for the Japanese tango was strummed on 

 an instrument known as the stamisen. When .Vrgentine 

 borrowed the dance from Japan and gave it plenty of 

 advertising, they discarded the stamisen and hired brass 

 bands. 



They also modified the dance just as a composer makes 

 ragtime out of classical music bv eliminating notes in 

 regular combinations to get a syncopated, cho];)pv, snappy 

 effect. 



Tango itself is an oriental word : the name of the 

 Chinese dynasty that ruled from 618 to 905 A. D. 



Nearly all sensuous dances originate in the hot coun- 

 tries, and Japan has been a rising point for rivers of 

 dancing that sent out branches all over the world. 



The famous side-show Hulu-Hulu dance of the Ha- 

 waiians was adapted from the Japanese sacred Hulu 

 dance. 



We have all been reading of the great awakening of 

 .China, how the Chinese are striving to eclipse the Japs. 



The success of the Japanese tango evidently made 

 China jealous, for about the time the new tariff bill 

 passed the Senate they exported a Chinese dance known 

 as the tao-tao, which already is eclipsing the tango here 

 in America. 



"Hop light, ladies, your cake's all dough!" 



— Exchange. 



GROWING GRAPES UNDER GLASS. 



The growing of grapes under glass in England is an 

 old, well-established and extensive business. Moreover, 

 it is in the hands of men who as horticulturists are sec- 

 ond to none, and whose experience with the varieties they 

 are now growing can be of material assistance to us in 

 our endeavors along this line. 



As this crop is grown under artificial conditions, the 

 matter of climate is not so pronounced as is the case with 

 imported fruits grown in the open ; the chief difiference, 

 perhaps, being those of less atmospheric humidity, and 

 greater light and heat intensity. Both of these conditions 

 can be greatly modified by more frequent "damping 

 down" and by the use of a light shade sprayed on the 

 glass. 



A list of the varieties of Vitis vinifera would be legion, 

 but perhaps 75 per cent, of the total glass crop of Great 

 Britain is produced by only six or eight varieties. These 

 varieties have proved themselves to possess in a marked 

 degree the characteristics of vigor, prolificacy and quality. 

 The varieties in question are : Black Hamboro or Black 

 Hamburg, Muscat Hamboro, Alicante, Gros Colmar, Gros 

 Maroc, Foster's Seedling, Mandresfield Court and Mus- 

 cat of Alexandria. The last-named is liable to be some- 

 what shy in setting fruit under certain conditions. 



The best way to grow the European grape is in a thor- 

 oughly drained and carefully prepared vine border, built 

 within the greenhouse and along its sides. The young 

 vines should be planted at least 12 inches from the wall, 

 and if two rods are to be grown from each vine, the vines 

 should be planted 8 feet apart, to allow 2 feet on either 

 side of each rod for the growth of the laterals. 



From a dormant condition the vines should be induced 

 to break into leaf gradually. Undue haste at this time 

 often spoils a crop. If budding out is slow or uneven, this 

 may be remedied by laying the rods on the ground and 

 syringing more frequently, or syringing with tepid water. 



The average length of time taken to grow a crop of 

 grapes from that of starting the canes into growth till the 

 fruit is ready to cut, is usually from five to six months. 

 It depends upon the time of year the crop ripens, after 

 which the vines require a rest, and an opportunity to 

 ripen the wood made. The grape crop is really a quick 

 crop when compared with the crops of other hard-wooded 

 fruits, but it requires continual attention. Successive an- 

 nual crops are obtained only by experience, often of a 

 most disheartening nature. 



The writer spent several years with one of the largest 

 commercial grape growers in England, who had consid- 

 erably more than 12,000 linear feet of glass in grapes 

 alone. Annually these vineries would produce crops of 

 perfect fruit, and varying but little in yield from year to 

 year. The estimated standard or yield for such varieties 

 as Gros Colmar, Black Hamboro and Alicante was one 

 pound of fruit to each linear foot of vine rod. Thus a 

 vine bearing two main rods each 18 feet in length, making 

 a total rod length of 36 feet, would be expected to yield 

 36 pounds of fruit. 



During the time of flowering, the setting of the fruit 

 is greatly assisted by gently tapping the canes once or 

 twice a day. Sometinies a rabbit's tail, or soft camel's 

 hair brush,' is used to distribute the pollen, and a third 



