November 21, 1867.) JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



381 



stoning period I saw they Ijegan to shank very ba-lly, I was 

 certain the roots were in fault, an.! on making inqmr es I 

 foundtho border, were dug out witli the vow of the.r bemg 

 concreted at the botton>, but that was never done. The smi, 

 the top spit from an old pasture, mixed with some s ab e ma^ 

 nnre alone, was wheeled on to the natural subsoil, ^-l.ich is a 

 stfl clav.BUch as all the bricks are made from in the noigh- 

 bourhood Here, then, was just reason to concludo «l>at was 

 the eanse of shanking. Still, the Vines were wonderful y 

 healthv and robust, and at the end of this season |1H(,1) they 

 did not exhibit the least trace of insects That autumn and 

 the following spring I had not time to lift the roots and remake 

 the borders, but determined to try what careful cu.t.vatiori 

 would do the next season, imr, ; but, despite ray care, I could 

 not prevent the DlacU Hamburgh from shanking a few berries, 

 and the Mnscats were as bad as in tlio previous season. 



During the winter of 18f,.5.r,0 I had a deep drain carried 

 some till) vards to tlie nearest point of outlet to dram the 

 stokeholes, which were often flooded during the winter, some- 

 ? mes with 2 feet of water ; hut I contrived to carry this drain 

 as near the Vino borders as possible, being determined to lift 

 the roots of the Muscats and remake the border in the spring, 

 which I did in March. I fhould have preferred the autumn, 

 but circumstances then prevented me. 



I also should, were I going to adopt the same treatment, re- 

 make only half the border at once, as it would not check the 

 crowth of the Vinos so much-namely, supposing the border 

 to be part inside and part outside, I would do the outside one 

 season and the inside another season, as in my case, with all 

 the care wo could bestow on the roots during the process of 

 forking them out, we could not prevent their diving a great 

 deal as it was very dry weather during the time we were about 

 it Durin" the whole time we were forking the soil out from 

 the roots I did not find one young fibre that was not more or 

 less injured by the water which encompassed the roots. 1 say 

 encompassed, because the natural level of the water here during 

 the winter is from 2 feet to 2 feet inches from the surface, 

 and often, after heavy rains, it will be from C to '.) inches nearer 

 tor a week or more at a time, so that all the lower roots in 

 these borders were during the winter covered with water. 



We found abundance of rotten fibrous roots, in the outside 

 border more particularlv, with plenty of indications where 

 thev had pushed large fleshy roots in the previous autumn. 



Here then, is quite enough to sustain Mr. Thomson s theory 

 about Grapes shanking. Not that I hold that Vines lose all 

 their active roots, and are then able to start in the spring with 

 vigour; but thev lose a great many young roots dvinng the 

 winter when planted in rich undrained soil, ^\lth the given 

 amount of sap stored up in the Vine, and with the action of 

 the good roots left uninjured, the Vine is enabled to start m 

 the spring with vigour; but when the great strain is put on 

 the Vine to enable the Grapes to pass through their stoning 

 period, the supply is not sullicient to meet the demand : hence 

 follows shanking. ., tt a „ u i .i,„ 



I should have passed over the remark by H. S. about the 

 natural soil being sulUcient, were it not that many employers 

 on reading such an article would often think and say their 

 gardeners want to make too much fuss over such things ; that 

 there is no need of half the trouble and expense to grow Grapes. 

 Such a conclusion is a great mistake. Would it not have been 

 far better if, in the first place, those borders of which I am 

 writing had been properly drained and concreted, so as to have 

 kept the roots under control, as well as the stems, leaves, ic, 

 of the plant ? Had they been so treated in the first place it 

 would have been many pounds saved for my employer, besides 

 the unpleasant thought that things had to be done over again. 



After removing the old border to the depth of ?, feet from 

 the level of the front I put in 3 inches of gravel, on that from 

 6 to 8 inches of concrete, allowing from Saturday evening till 

 midday on Monday for the concrete to set. I then put on 

 9 inches of brickbats, coarse gravel, Ac, for drainage, and on 

 this the soil, composed of the following materials— namely, 

 seventeen cartloads of loam, fix of brick rubbish, old mortar, *o., 

 two of chalk, three of burnt clay, two of old stable manure- 

 in all thirty cartloads. This, as " H. S." will see, involved a 

 great amount of Labour that conld have been saved if the 

 work had been properly done in the first place— in fact, it em- 

 ployed eight men wholly from last Friday morning till Tuesday 

 evening, exclusive of horse labour. 



I have read with pleasure oil the articles on this subject m 

 The .ToriiNM. of Hoktui-ltiiu:, and believe many of thein 

 are right in the main point, though they seem to differ, and I 



believe much information will be gained from these discnssioiiB. 

 —Jons M.U-, IfV«(/ii'W aardim, llnranl. 



WnKS buyer and seller disagree there is seldom any diffi- 

 culty in finding some one ready to take part in the quarrel. 

 "H K "who writes from France.maybeadisciple of Mr. IhoiD- 

 Bon • but that does not add to the value of the book I have pur- 

 chased. Neither does the temperature of 110' registered last 

 August in the Pontchartrain houses prove that our fcnghsh 

 amateur's vinery should resemble the stoke-hole of a mail 

 steamer in the lied Sea. " H. K." ought to see that I bought 

 with the treatise the right to interrogate the author, and 1 think 

 Mr Thomson should have met my inquiries in a manner to be 

 of service to those for whose guidance his treatise was prin- 

 cipally intended. , ^ o ,. v t 

 I cannot comply with the suggestions of " G. S., because 1 

 have no "mode of Vine culture " to recommend, and if the 

 truth of what Mr. Thomson has written for my use can be 

 established, no one will be more satisfied than myself ; but il 

 it will not bear investigation, what use can the treatise be to 

 any one ' ■' G. S. " must have seen that I am aware tropical tem- 

 peratures are not wholly confined to the tropics. I have taken 

 advantage of this to show that Vines do not grow in such places. 

 Madras has a rainfall of 8 feet, just what its temperature re- 

 quires and the heat of the soil is in proportion to that of the 

 atmosphere. Compare this with the tropical temperatures re- 

 commended by Mr. Thomson, an outside Vine border, and our 

 rainfall of little more than 2 feet. . . ,, ,, 



We must also remember that plants requiring three montbs 

 of tropical heat must have a corresponding spring, autumn, and 

 winter temperature. In countries bordering on the tropics tlus 

 would foUow naturally enough, and the winter would not be 

 one of months but of weeks only. Mr. Thomson says that 

 Vines started in February will have their leaves falling off m 

 September. Now, if we take three months from the time the 

 bunches are in fiower to the ripening of the fruit, with a tem- 

 perature of 70' to '.!0\ we have five months to divide between 

 the spring and autumn, and four months for the Vines to le- 

 raaiu in a state of total inactivity. That Mr. Thomson's Vines 

 are really inactive during the four months of winter, and not 

 storin" up sap as he has attempted to show, by reference to the 

 writings of Dr. Lindley, is proved by his saying that it is not 

 advisable to keep Grapes hanging on the \ mes alter the sap 

 begins to rise. . j v 



There is no rest in nature in the sense understood by gar- 

 deners, and every matured and perfect life is capable of repro- 

 ducing itself if placed in a condition to do so. A Vine eye ent 

 at any time from a matured shoot, will make a strong plant it 

 placed where it can receive light, heat, and moisture, and 

 whether it be cut four days after the maturity of the shoot, or 

 four months, success is as certain in one case as in the other. 

 Although plants in their natural habitats are, to a certain ex- 

 tent, in a state of activity or slow progression, retarded or ac- 

 celerated, according to the warmth and moisture of the air, 

 after the fall of the leaf, this would not be true of the Vine ex- 

 posed to the influence of our climate. 



It has been said that I have made a great mistake in taking 

 mean tcmpe.-atures of climate in illustration of my arguments 

 in favour of lower temperatures than those recommended by- 

 Mr. Thomson, because in Languedoc the sun beats for days on 

 the bare skin of the Grapes, when the temperature is upwards 

 of lOif . Well, let us leave Languedoc her sun heat, and take 

 IT from her mean summer temperature, and we shall have 

 just the climate for pioducing Grapes like bags of sonr 

 water, and now, if it were possible to add the 12" taken from 

 Languedoc to our climate, our mean summer temperature 

 woufd equal that of the south of France. Where is the mistake? 

 The roots of Mr. Nicholls's Vines would not back the buds up 

 and enable them to progress. He expected soon to see the 

 bunches show, but for six weeks saw but little change, and 

 wondered why such great buds should produce sucU pnny 

 little shoots. What says Mr. Thomson? "While the stored-iq) 

 sap lasts they grow vigorously enough, but a period amves 

 when it is exhausted, and the new comes but slowly, for the 

 old roots that remain are just beginning, through the action of 

 the foliage, to start into life a fresh set of young ones that are 

 able as yet lo supply but little. This takes place when the 

 berry is passing through the stoning period of its existence." — 

 H. S. , 



Your correspondent, " II. S.,'' denies the possibilitj- of a 

 Vine having stored-up sap. Allow me to ^assure " H. S." 



