November 7, 1867. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



849 



I shall be inclined to put it down nil, both for cuttings and old 

 p^nta. 



Mr. Lnckhnrst states that from one small plant in the au- 

 tumn of 1S()3, he had four hundred plants in the autumn of 

 18fi7 ; but I confess I think his progress rather slow, for sup- 

 posing no more than seven cuttings to bo taken off each plant 

 annually, then between 1HG3 and 18i;7 ho ought to have ob- 

 tained more than four thousand plants. This, I think, will be 

 considered a very low figure, when I state that I have taken up 

 and potted sjuco the liTlh of September, upwards of two 

 hundred plants of Mrs. Pollock, which would each furnish at 

 the present time from twelve to sixteen good cuttings, and in 

 hands that wanted to make the most of them, double that 

 number. — J. Couplajid. 



VINES AND VINE BORDERS— NATUR^y^ 



TEMPERATURES. 



What does Mr. Thomson mean by saying that my per- 

 sistent attacks on his little work are worthy of a better cause, 

 and that I deserve the fate of all who have recourse to false 

 colours ? If Mr. Thomson had not endeavoured to answer a 

 question addressed to Mr. Wills, it is very likely I should not 

 have written about his treatise in the way I have, and yet I 

 have said nothing more that I had a right to do. I am an 

 amateur, the proprietor of a villa residence, and unable to 

 " afford the luxury of a scientific gardener." I am, therefore, 

 in all truth one of the very numerous class whom Mr. Thomson 

 professes to advise. Several years of personal observation have 

 made me familiar with many countries and half the climates 

 of the world. I have verified by careful investigation and ex- 

 periment, much of what has been written by Lindley, End- 

 licher, and De Candolle, and because of the knowledge so ob- 

 tained, and standing on a vantage ground not shared by many 

 of my brother amateurs and " proprietors," I, one of the ad- 

 vised, ask the adviser to give proof of his wisdom. Had Mr. 

 Thomson accepted my offer to discuss his treatise in a fair and 

 proper spirit, and with an earnest desire to prove clearly what 

 is necessary for an amateur to do to enjoy a bunch of Grapes 

 of his own growing, and had he asked me for my name, I would 

 willingly have given it, and am still ready to do so. 



It may be that my reply to Mr. Thomson's letter of the 21st 

 of March, was not worthy to bo so called, but Mr. Thomson 

 would do well to explain how ho makes an English vinery with 

 a minimum temperature of 70", to be cooler than the Rhine 

 vineyards with a mean summer temperature of 1)5'. I have 

 been vei'y careful to give the mean temperatures of the seasons, 

 and to avoid all mention of exceptional temperatures, because 

 these are of little or no value. In the month of May I buried 

 a thermometer 1 foot beneath the surface of the ground, at 

 1 P.M. it stood at C0° ; another at (i inches in depth marked C 1° ; 

 a third at 1 J inches under the surface registered 10 1'; and a 

 fourth, suspended G inches above the ground, and fully exposed 

 to the sun, stood at lOu" ; while a fifth, facing the north, in the 

 shade of a wall, barely reached 7.V'. Buckingham says he found 

 the temperature of the air near Nazareth, 'J2° in the shade in 

 the month of February. Dr. Clarke found the temperature of the 

 air at Cana in Galilee, to be from 100' to 102i° in the shade. 

 On the other hand, a temperature of CO" is nothing unusual, 

 even under the equator. Such temperatures as these are not 

 to be taken as proper for the plants where they are found ; on 

 the contrary, extremes of heat and cold are always injurious to 

 both animal and vegetable life. In the almost perpetual sum- 

 mer of the BraziUan forests, the thermometer will often not 

 vary .5' in a month, and the mean temperature of the air is but 

 little in excess of that of southern Italy. Extremes of tem- 

 perature are not unusual upon open and unsheltered plains, and, 

 as a consequence, cultivation becomes all but impossible. It 

 should also be remembered that a tree or shrub exposed for a 

 short time to an excessive solar heat sustains but little injury, 

 because the leaves and fruit receiving the full blaze of the sun 

 are often less than ten per cent, of the whole number on the 

 tree. Add to this the continual motion of leaves and branches 

 in the open air, and we have something very different from the 

 state of things in a vinery. 



I have more than once admitted that Mr. Thomson has grown 

 fine Grapes, but that has little to do with his advice to ama- 

 teurs, who, perhaps, care to figure at a show as little as myself. 

 It is, however, quite possible that my Grapes may yet appear 

 in competition with Mr. Thomson's. At present I confine my- 

 self to Grape growing as a source of profit, and here, I think, 



Mr. Thomson must be content to take second place. I began 

 to send my Grapes to market on the 22nd of May, the whole- 

 sale price being 4». per lb., falling to 3<. on the 10th of July, 

 for first, and 28. for second quality. The lOBU bunches averaged 

 11 ozs. each, and adding last year's autumn crop, my weakest 

 Vines bore fourteen, and my strongest thirty-three bunches 

 each, within thirteen months from the day of planting. I hope 

 the Editors will make some use of the photograph, but shonld 

 they be unable to do so, I shall be glad to place a copy in the 

 hands of a photographer, that the readers of the Journal may 

 procure copies if they wish to do so. 



As Mr. 'Thomson recommends a minimum night temperatore 

 of 70', a rise of 10' by fire heat in the day, and a further rise 

 of lu' by sun heat when ho closes his house, will ho explain 

 how his maximum of 'J0° lasts for one hour, and his minimum 

 of 70' for twenty-three hours ? Surely it is not because I am 

 " willingly blind," that I cannot " see at a glance " how this 

 is done. 



In my last letter, I said that " in a proper temperature the 

 leaves while still green becoming partially detached from the 

 shoot, is an unerring sign of a perfect maturity of the wood, 

 which then becomes merely a means of communication between 

 the root and the bud." Now, I thought this was a fact known 

 to otliers as well as to myself, because a leaf falling prema- 

 turely — say at seven months, leaves behind it a green shield 

 firmly adhering to the shoot ; but leaves remaining healthy 

 nearly to the tenth month, show when thrown off a brown 

 surface, having from three to six green spots. The shoot if 

 cut through will be found full of sap, showing plainly enough 

 that it is not arrested, but diverted to the bud, which will re- 

 main at rest only till a suitable temperature encourages its de- 

 velopment. I am indebted to the late Dr. Lindley for many 

 hours of quiet enjoyment, and I agree with him, that roots are 

 never perfectly at rest, and that their active condition fills the 

 sap vessels, and distends the whole tissue of the plant. All 

 this corroborates what I have written above, and condemns the 

 statement of Mr. Thomson, that a Vine whose roots have been 

 " killed by the winter's rains," is still in a condition to support 

 a vigorous growth till the second swelling of the berries. 



I believe my letters have not been unacceptable to those who 

 take an interest in Grape-growing. I have confined myself to 

 facts, and I am certainly not guilty of " persistently misre- 

 presenting" Mr. Thomson's teaching. He must not think his 

 letter, needing as much explanation as his treatise, will be ac- 

 cepted as a satisfactory closing ofour controversy. Nothing 

 that I have written, and I hope nothing I may write, will ever 

 mislead a reader of his book. Will Mr. Thomson accept the 

 friendly hand I now extend to him, and lend mo his strength 

 to throw down the strong fence of humbug surrounding the 

 simple question of Grape-growing, and accepting my invitation 

 to discuss the matter contained in his treatise, still allow me 

 to retain my initials of — H. S. ? 



In- answer to a letter from " H. S." criticising Mr. Thom- 

 son's able and standard work on the Vine, I should hke to bear 

 testimony to the exact truth of what Mr. Thomson says at 

 page 18, as " H. S." not only denies its correctness, but goes 

 on to say it is an "impossibility." Mr. Thomson, speaking of 

 the diseases to which Vines are subject, mentions as one of the 

 most frequent causes of shanking the cold and wet of an out- 

 side border ; and he states that even where the roots have not 

 penetrated into a bad subsoil, and the foliage of the preceding 

 year has been fine and the wood strong, this disease will some- 

 times make its appearance, because the strong young roots, 

 which he aptly compares to the points of a goose's quill, and 

 which are the main source of the luxuriant foliage and wood of 

 the preceding autumn, are destroyed by the winter rains ; 

 and though (this is the passage objected to by " H. S.") " the 

 Vines have a given amount of stored-up sap in them, which 

 while it lasts enables them to grow vigorously .... a period 

 arrives when it is exhausted." 



Now, though I am only an amateur, I have given my closest 

 attention to Vine culture ; and if my powers of observation 

 are worth anything, I must say that this passage in Mr. Thom- 

 son's treatise exactly describes the condition of one of my 

 vineries during the spring of this year. 



Two years ago, when I began Vine-growing in this place (the 

 soil is a rich loam on a marly clay), 1 found in the old garden 

 the remains of what had been a good vinery ; but as all the 

 glass had been removed some years ago. the foundations of the 

 walls were all that remained of the former vinery. The old 



