Jaly 21, 186S. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTITRE AND COTTAGE GAUDENEE. 



43 



dry, as a little excess of moisture is apt to cause the berries 

 to crack. If the Grapes were merely swelled, not ripe, then 

 extreme dryness would be apt to make them shrivel and dry 

 up. As they seemed so luxuriant a few days ago, we could 

 not be positive that this was the cause, unless assured that 

 the roots were dry. In such weather they might soon be- 

 come so, if the roots were shallow, and no mulching or 

 watering given. If the roots were moderately deep, we 

 should be inclined to judge that dryness at the roots was 

 not the reason ; but to assign it to a very dry and hot at- 

 mosphere inside. As a general rule, however, we should 

 never think of "drying-otf " the Vines until the fruit was 

 not only ripe but mostly cut. When fully ripe, we would 

 not deluge the border, but we should rather wish it to be 

 dry until the fruit was pretty well gone. A good theory 

 may become a nuisance and a mischief when too hard 

 driven. In such dry burning weather, even if Grapes are 

 ripening, a little moisture in the house from syringing 

 walls, stages, floors, &c., will prevent shrivelling and drying. 

 In cold, dull weather, such treatment would help the berries 

 to crack and rot. If the Grapes are merely swelled, not 

 ripe, watering at the roots if diy will be all in their favour, 

 and just a moist condition in opposition to dust dry should 

 be the state of the roots until most of the fruit is cut. Even 

 then some tender kinds are easily influenced by a moist or 

 very di-y atmosphere. In moist, muggy weather, therefore, 

 it may be advisable to put a little fire on and give plenty of 

 air ; and in very dry weather it may be just as necessary 

 slightly to damp the atmosphere of the house, by syringing 

 floor, paths, &c. 



We fear that there may have been something of the same 

 extreme as respects the Melons, only the extra luxuriance 

 makes us doubt a little. If there was a good depth of soO, and 

 that was well saturated after the Melons took hold, and the 

 surface stirred afterwards, we have frequently had fine crops 

 of Melons that never again were visited by water. These 

 were cases in which the heat was more important than 

 moisture, and when we knew there was plenty of moisture 

 to swell and ripen the Melons. In general cases. Melons 

 just require as much water as most other plants — quite 

 as much as the Cucumber, until the ripening process ap- 

 proaches. If there is an exception, it is the importance of 

 having a dry atmosphere when the plants are in bloom. 

 That is best secured by having the surface of the bed dry 

 then. Of course, if the soU, as a whole, were dry, we should 

 not expect the fruit to set, and if set, we should not expect 

 them to swell. When the swelling commences we like the 

 soil to be moist. If the weather is unfavourable, and a 

 moist surface would cool the place too much, then we would 

 moisten the bulk of the soU, and leave the surface dry. In 

 fine sunny weather there will be no harm in watering the 

 bed in the usual way. A dry surface is essential for flavour, 

 if the fruit is ripened in dung-frames ; but the soU con- 

 taining the balk of the roots should not then be dust dry, 

 and neither should it be deluged. Except when it is 

 setting and ripening its fruit, the Melon needs as much 

 moisture as a Cucumber, and not a great deal less than a 

 Cabbage. It is only as the fruit approaches maturity that 

 the extreme of dryness is a matter of importance. When 

 plants are grown in pots, or in narrow beds, and trained to 

 a trellis, and the fruit suspended under the foliage, but con- 

 siderably above and free from the bed, then even surface 

 dryness of the soU is a matter of less importance for securing 

 flavour. In all cases where the fruit is merely swelling, we 

 should consider a very dry state of the soil unsuitable, and 

 calculated to ripen the fruit prematurely before it had 

 gained half its usual size. 



The sUght doubt as to this extreme of dryness we find in 

 the " another thing," as to the bines being so luxuriant and 

 trying to get outside, the frames being full of them. This is 

 hardly compatible with extreme dryness of soU, unless, 

 indeed, the roots have gone in search after moisture beyond 

 the soil, and are revelling vinchecked in rich rotten dung, 

 or something of that kind. In such a case the plant will 

 not become exhausted — quite the reverse ; but it will most 

 likely be a very successful instance of luxuriance versus 

 fr-uitfalness. Such luxuriance of bine speaks of the plant 

 thriving, but then it also speaks of want of concentration 

 for a definite puipose — namely, fruit. Leave such luxuriance 

 unchecked, and the plant in its eagerness to grow and 



expand may forget all about the fruit that needs elaborated 

 sap to swell it and give it flavour. When a plant in a 

 frame is thus a thicket of shoots, more than half the foliage 

 is uninfluenced by the sun, and, therefore, hurtful rather 

 than otherwise. If not curtailed, it would be a good thing 

 for the plant if the frame were raised, ajid the Vines allowed 

 to go outside. Melons dislike cutting and slashing. The 

 best mode is to disbud at first, and pinch merely afterwards. 

 In such a case as we presume the present to be, a severe 

 cutting and thinning woidd do more harm than good. The 

 check given to the mere growth would act on the fruit, and 

 very likely arrest its swelling. Shorten all the shoots of 

 the small fry at once by merely picking-out their points, 

 which will thus give a gentle check to mere gl■o^rth of wood, 

 so that the fruit may have the benefit of the nourishment 

 which woxdd otherwise have been appropriated to the pro- 

 duction of wood, and then take a little foliage away day 

 by day, until at last there are few leaves that cannot be 

 fully exposed to the light and air when you give it. If 

 there is plenty of heat, leave a little air at the top of the 

 frame all night, and give as needed during the day. If 

 thus kept cool at night, the plant wiU rejoice rather than 

 otherwise in a high temperature during the day. But for 

 the enervating influence of a high close temperature a,t 

 night, there would be less trouble with airing and shading 

 during hot sunshine. 



Such are a few random ideas, the residts of some ex;- 

 perience; but we by no means think they will clear up 

 thoroughly the difference as to opinion between "E. B." 

 and his gardener. If they help to do so, or to establish the 

 principle that one system may be vei-y good, if thoroughly 

 carried out, whilst two good separate systems if blended and 

 mixed wiU often produce mischief and faUure, we wUl be 

 more than satisfied. Without understanding the system 

 on which a man works, it is not an easy matter to say that 

 his practice is wrong. Nothing could seem more different 

 than watering Melon plants only at planting time, and 

 watering on an average, say, once or twice a-week, and yet 

 precisely similar results may be obtained in both cases by a 

 little diversity of detaU. Only this much we may say, that 

 the man who strikes out a fresh path for himself whUst in 

 the service of another, must make up his mind that he must 

 also secure pretty fair success. Many a servant has lost a 

 good master because, right or wrong, he would have his 

 own way. Many a master has lost a good servant becaiise 

 he would not exercise a little forbearance.] i 



STRAWBEEEY-GEOWING. 



I CAN from experience safely recommend " H. C. K.'s " 

 mode of mulching Strawberry plants with a liberal quantity 

 of horse-droppings ; but I cannot bear out his assertion that 

 it is possible by this treatment to keep " one piece of ground 

 under Strawberries for sixteen years without the slightest 

 loss of either quality or quantity." As he speaks from ex- 

 perience, wiU he kindly inform your readers more clearly 

 if he means that he has had for sixteen years good crops 

 from the same old crowns, without renewing the beds with 

 fresh plants ? Surely he can hardly mean this, for it is 

 against all recognised theory or practice. His system, if 

 correct, wiU be a perfect blessing to the host of amateurs, 

 who with their odd man or boy have to rack their wits how 

 to renew their Strawberry-plots every three or four years. 



Whilst on this topic I venture to say that I have acci- 

 dentally found that the waste fibre from the cocoa mat and 

 brush factories is an exceUent protection for the ripening 

 Strawberries instead of straw or grass. It keeps the fruit 

 clean and dry, does not harbour vermin, and with care lasts 

 many years. It was sent to me by mistake for the potting 

 fibre ; but it is now the right thing in the right place. — 

 W. X. W. 



Protecting Stbawbekries from Slugs — Cotoneasteb 

 MicKOPHYLLA. ->- Some of youi- correspondents have been 

 inquiring how to' protect Strawberries fi'om slugs. I am 

 much tormented with them, and have found dry sawdust 

 from my sawmUl a complete safeguard. In addition to the 

 uses lately mentioned for the Cotoneaster mici-ophyUa you 

 might suggest the grafting it on Thorn stocks about 4 feet 



