September 8, 1863. ] JOUENAL OF HOETICTILTTJEE AJST) COTTAaE GAEDENEE. 



189 



GLADIOLUS DISEASE. 



In your Number of August 11th you mention a disease 

 similar to the Potato disease having attacked the Gladiolus 

 near London, and request information as to those gro-n-B 

 in the country. Having grown Gladioli for the last twelve 

 or fourteen years from bulbs, not seed, I can fairly answer 

 your question, and state that this year is decidedly the 

 worst I have known. 



Perhaps owing to last year's rain our bulbs were not har- 

 vested in the best condition, and they were not so robust as 

 usual; but the bulbs this yeai- seem to siiffer from two 

 diseases. In one case the old bulb hardly makes any roots, 

 i-emains very dry, and consequently only forms a small and 

 weakly new bulb, which throws up its head until the flower- 

 spike is on the point of blossoming. It then tiu-ns yellow, 

 withers, and dies. In the other case the old bulb rots away 

 entirely, leaving only a weakly new bulb, or perhaps none 

 at all. 



I planted my Gladioli this year m three large beds, one 

 manured \vith rotten dung, one -with weU-rotted hops, and 

 the other had no manure at all. That manured with hops 

 turned out the best, and I have to thank Mr. Touell for the 

 liint. The other two beds were very bad — perhaps the one 

 not manured was the worst. 



The disease is not confined to Gladioli in beds, as I have 

 about twelve lots of seedlings in pots and boxes. Some of 

 these have also gone off; others, last year's seedlings, have 

 blossomed. 



I should be inclined to ^-ow Gladioli in peat mould if I 

 coiUd procure it more easily, and to manure only with rotted 

 hops, as some Brenchleyensis we have in a peat border are 

 very healthy ; but, from having been planted there three 

 years running, have sported their colours. 



Can anybodj' recommend me a good ycEow Gladiolus ? 

 I have raised many from Opliii- ; but they are not pure 

 yellow, generally yeUow with lilac. — Pbed. B. Hanket, 

 Capt., R.N., Fetcham Park, Leatherhead. 



EAELY EIPENIJfG OP MUSCAT GEAPES. 



I KEAD with very great pleasure the account Mr. Thomson 

 gave of his Muscat, and hoped it would have opened a dis- 

 cussion ; but as it has not done so, I venture to ask. Has 

 any one found that when the Muscat of Alexandria is grown 

 in bottom heat it sets as v/ell and is not a week behind the 

 Hamburghs ? 



The time requii-ed to mature a crop depends on the heat 

 used, and, with Vines planted outside, on the time of the 

 year. If, then, we place our Muscats in a situation unsuited 

 to them, shovdd we call them late ? I think we should 

 say simply, that they are more tender, and that if they have 

 a warm soil with the saiue top heat as is used for Ham- 

 burghs, they may be ripened in twenty weeks. 



If some one who has had more experience would give a 

 little information on this subject, I, for one, shoixld be very 

 much obliged. — G. H. 



[Whatever may have been the cause of the unusual earli- 

 ness of the Muscat, which has ripened so long before the 

 other varieties here (Archerfield) for the last three years, it 

 cannot, so far as I can trace the matter, be attributed to 

 any extra bottom heat which has not been enjoyed by the 

 •other Muscats in the same house. And in testing it against 

 the Black Hambiu-gh this season it laboui'ed at a consider- 

 able disadvantage on the score of bottom heat, in so far as 

 its roots were in a cold, open house, while it was being 

 forced in another vinery along with the Hamburghs, to 

 which bottom heat was applied by fermenting material on 

 the surface of the border. It is not necessary to detail tliis 

 trial of the Muscat against the HambiU'ghs, as it can be re- 

 ferred to in the Number of the Journal in which I minutely 

 detailed the whole cii-cumstances. 



There are other two matters that strengthen my con- 

 viction that the earUness of the Vine was not caused by 

 extra bottom heat. The one was the fact that the Vine 

 was always a weakly gTower, which is a result, as far as my 

 experience goes, exactly the reverse of that which is pro- 

 duced by bottom heat. I have found that Vines always 

 grew more quickly and stronger with bottom heat than 



without it. The other is, that a Tynningham Muscat, which 

 ripens earlier than the old Muscat, is planted within less 

 than 2 feet of this early Vine, and I cannot well conceive 

 how the roots of the one could have more heat than the 

 other. 



The border is so far heated from beneath that I have 

 taken the advantage of a pipe which passes thi'ough the 

 middle of the border to another vinery, and have confined 

 the heat from that pipe, and given it every means of disse- 

 minating among the ojjen rubble with which the border is 

 amply drained. The whole of the Muscats in this vinery 

 ripen earlier than any that I have ever pre's'lously seen, and 

 this I attribute to the bottom heat in conjunction with a 

 lighter soil than Grapes are generally grown in; and I quite 

 agTee with your correspondent, " G. H.," that with the aid 

 of bottom heat and the use of a light soU, Muscats can be 

 ripened much earlier than is general, for I have proved the 

 fact — and, more than this, that they can be brought to a 

 pitch of ripeness that is scarcely attainable when they are 

 grown in cold borders and in heavier soils. But this does 

 not account for the disparity between a particular Vine in 

 the same boi'der with others. 



Our early Muscat-house, which is the one now refeiTcd to, 

 having bottom heat in the border, was stai-ted with fire heat 

 on the 20th of January, and the Grapes were quite fit for 

 table the iirst week in June, which is under twenty weeks, 

 and those weeks by no means the warmest weeks of the 

 year. Now, the difficulty of ripening Muscats thoroughly 

 at a much more advanced season of the year has been yearly 

 demonstrated at the various shows where this Grape has 

 been competed for, and even up to September the complaint 

 of reporters has been that Muscats have been um-ipe, how- 

 ever large and fine may have been the bunches and berries. 

 In fact, the larger the bunch and the berries, the greater 

 the difficulty of producing at an early season that degree 

 of ripeness with that pitch of amber colour which is both 

 the certain sign of high flavour, and the most essential con- 

 dition to hanging long in a sound, unshriveUed condition. 



There is no doubt whatever that Muscats can be grown 

 into much stronger Vines, that will yield larger bunches, and 

 swell much larger berries when planted in borders composed 

 of a heavy, somewhat tenacious loam, as compared with the 

 prodxice of lighter soOs. In the one case there are produced 

 stronger wood, larger leaves, with fruit and everything on a 

 more gigantic scale, and very pleasing to look at. But just 

 as these conditions are produced, in the same degree is the 

 season of ripening the crop lengthened out, more parti- 

 cidarly if the bed of soil in which they are growing is deep, 

 and not very particularly drained. On the other hand, a 

 light, sandy loam not over liberally enriched with vegetable 

 matter, such as dung or leaf mould, produces a Vine of less 

 strength, having smaller foliage and bunches, and berries 

 smalTin proportion; but the fruit will ripen on such a soil 

 long before that produced under the reverse circumstances 

 which have been described. The fruit wiU also attain that 

 transparent amber colour tinged with those russety spots 

 which characterise the highest pitch of ripeness, and which 

 is accompanied with that rich Muscat flavoui- which is 

 present only to a very faint extent in indifferently-ripened 

 fruit. 



A light son, in conjunction with bottom heat, always ripens 

 Grapes earlier than a heavier cold soil ; and what might- 

 be expected to produce the best Muscats in all respects is a 

 somewhat tenacious loam thorougldy well drained, and 

 efficiently heated fr-om beneath with hot-water pipes. Under 

 the latter conditions there would be little difficulty in ripen- 

 ing them thoroughly ia a shorter time than when no bottom 

 heat is applied. But for quick work in secm-ing a weU- 

 coloured crop of Muscats, a lighter soil is preferable, al- 

 though the fruit will not be so large as that produced on 

 the stronger soU. 



From recent observations, I am convinced that the border 

 should become something like what might be termed very dry 

 as the ripening process goes on, and that not a drop of mois- 

 tm-e should be allowed to fall on the border after the fruit 

 begins to change colour. One of the changes which go 

 on in fruits during the ripening process is the dissipation 

 or decomposition of the water which they attract ; and the 

 less of this element there is present to decompose, the more 

 is the ripening process accelerated, and the greater are the 



