14 



JODBNAIi OF HORTICUIiTUSE AND COTTAGE G\.EDENSa. 



[ Jiaaary i, 1377. 



and on one coeasion witnessed sons uncut when a heavy fall 

 of enow broke it down — so mneb for 1826. Uafortnaately iny 

 recollection of it3 effects on gardea crops is limited to tba ra- 

 mambriuce of its baiog au exoaileut season for small fruits, 

 wMeh were uansnally good in quality. Oaions, I thiak, wore 

 also good, but Turnip? were poor, aud pasturage wan also 

 mnch burnt up, and there wti-a greit outcries for witer in 

 places where that article was never wanting before, whik there 

 were nnm"rou=i aiies of spontanaous coaabustion, and largs 

 districts of moor or forest in Scotland were on fire for weeks, 

 creating groat alarm. This, I believe has been repeated since, 

 but not to the extent of 1826. I well remember 1816 being a 

 very dry year, and more recently 1868 and 1870 were both so, 

 but the summer of 1826 baa left the greatest impressio.i on my 

 memory as the hottest sammer on record. — J. Eobson. 



THE PRESENT WINTER. 

 The snow hid from view for a time some of our winter pets. 

 Had last summer's drought something to do with our Ciirist- 

 mas Roses being in bloom on St. Thomas's day? I mean 

 HsUeborug niger. It 13 an unusual circumstance in our 

 northern region. Eranthia hyemalia I have not noted so early 

 in bloom before as this season. The Bear's-foot (HaUehorus 

 ffletidua) wan a sight with its bundles of flower heads above the 

 snow, and then drooping down to it. Helleborua viridis is on 

 its way. Diphne M-zereoQ, Jasminum nudiflorum, Lanrus- 

 tinnr., and others are indicating the spring time, and are very 

 welcome to us at this spaaou. We do not expect the ppring 

 just yot. Cbtistmas day has been on the Monday, and some 

 of our old progaosticators have dark forebodings arising from 

 that circamst;inoe ; nevertheless we hope on, and if spared we 

 will work and wait. — Observer. 



THE CEA.CKINa OF GRA-PES-QRAPIINa 



VINES. 



"Cracking is usually attributed to excess of moisture at the 

 roots." So wrote Mr. Cakia on page 557. It is true, but only 

 just half of the whole truth, the other half b.<iiug a defieienoy 

 of foliage to appropriate the excess of moisture, withdrawing 

 it from the bunches and relieving the berries. 



Soma varieties of Grapes are more prone to cracking than 

 others, owing to the peculiar brittleness or inelasticity of the 

 Bkiue of the berries, and also the same varieties vary in their 

 liability to crack according to their state at the time of the 

 influx of water. Up to the psriod of being fully ripe the skins 

 of Grapes are at the fall point of distension by the swelling of 

 the iut-rior of the fruit. At that stage they cannot resist 

 further p-eesure from within by a sudden influx of water being 

 absorbed by the roots. After having become fully ripe there 

 is a perceptible shrinking of the interior of the berries, and 

 their skini rI^o become more tough. This shrinking ia oeoi- 

 aionally very manifest in the case of Black Hamburglrs, espe- 

 cially on old Vines, when the bsrriea lose mu^h of their colour 

 in cousfiiueuca of it. This loss of colour must have been 

 noticed by many cultivator?. In August their Grapes have 

 been quite black, but on hanging until November they have 

 " turned brown"— a simple result of the internal shrinking of 

 the berries, taking, as it wore, the backing from the mirror 

 and enabling one, ai it were, to look through, quite through, 

 the pkin. 



Now after this shrinking has taken place Grapes seldom 

 crack — that is, so long as the foliij-'o remains on ths Vines; 

 but if the borders become saturated with water b-ifore the 

 shrinking, cracking almost certainly follows. Grapes intended 

 to keep well must therefore be ripened early, and pirticularly 

 if the borders containing the roots cannot be sheltered from 

 the lieavy autumn rains. With early ripening and plenty of 

 foliage Madresfleld Court Grape will not crack; but late or im- 

 perfect ripening, and a deficiency of foliage at the time of 

 heavy rains, almost certainly loads to rupture of the berries. 



Mr. Cakiu's Lady Dowue's were not ripe, and hia Black 

 Hamburghs wore ripe before the damp days of autumn Eet in, 

 hoDco the failure of the one and the success of the other. Ha 

 is not alone ; several others are in the same position this year 

 in consequence of the exceptional mild and wet autumn, which 

 could not have been anticipated. No doubt the limewaah was 

 left on the glass too long and aggravated the evil complained of. 



As to the substitution of another white Grape for the White 

 Frontignan I should have Bucklaod Sweetwater. If the Vmes 

 are young and the border comparativoly new I should plant a 



young Vine, but if old I should graft or inarch on one of the 

 older Vines. It is not of much use planting a young Vine iu 

 an old Vine border. I havj had no experience of the White 

 Frontignan as a stock for other varieties, but I know the Black 

 Hambiirgh is an exaellont stock for Backland Sweetwater, A 

 Biack Himburgh stem and roots will support two rods as well 

 ai one. Perhaps the safest aud simplest form of grafting is 

 bottlo-grattiog. Take grafts now of etout well-ripened wood. 

 Keep them fresh until the stocks have commenced growing iu 

 the spring ; then take adeep slice 6 inches long from the middle 

 portion of the graft and a corresponding slics from the stock, 

 aud fit them together, tving with tape aud surrounding with 

 mo?s. Place the lower end of the graft or scion in a large 

 bottle of water, filling up the bottle as the water wastes, say 

 until July, when the union will be complete and tho graft will 

 have grown hall way up the house. — A Retired Gardknee. 



THE OLD MARKET GARDENS axd NURSERIES 

 OF LONDON.— No. 14. 



Those individuals who have been acquainted with tho 

 suburbs of London for the last forty or fifty years have aotioed, 

 if observant persons, a psculiar order of succession in tho 

 oecupincy of the land. In Georgian days districts now covered 

 t'nickly with houses were more than half rural, and thofa''mera 

 cultivated Wheat, while herds of good-couditioned cattle grazed 

 on the grassy fields. After a time the cattle began diEaiuishing 

 in number; aud though many cows w^re still pastured, the 

 farmers found it to their advantage to plough up some of the 

 fields, and send from them Potatoes, 'Turnips, and Cabbages 

 to the Loudon markets. By an easy transition the whole of 

 the land thus disposable came into the hands of professed 

 market gardeners, and even the cows had to withdraw, to bo 

 immured iu unwholesome houses and sheds, for tho best (or 

 worst) part of their lives. The next change would be, that the 

 demand for building sites seriously entrenching on the garden 

 ground, the grower of vegetables removed farther away, and 

 gave place to the nurseryman, who generally needs less space. 

 He, devoting himself to fruits and flowers, has most of hia 

 plants under glass, and only a few ia the open ground at 

 London, drawing fresh supplies froca orchards and plantations 

 out iu the purer air of the country. In some suburbs, how- 

 ever, ovau nursery gardens disappear, and only the " florist " 

 as he calls himself survives, with no laud at all attached to 

 his place of business, except enough to admit of the erection of 

 one conservatory for the temporary accommodation of the 

 plants he sells off rapidly. Ojiiasionally, as in parts of West- 

 minster and Eelgravia, so fast has been the growth of London 

 that this succession has been broken-iu upon, and laud has 

 passed at onco from the market gardener to the builder, leaving 

 scarcely a nurseryman or florist behind to tell tho tale of 

 other days. The like cironmstanee is to be recorded of Isliugton 

 and some northern suburbs. 



There is a largish district of London, situate on tho Middle- 

 sex side of tho Thames, within a bond of that river, and 

 bounded on the north by the West End par'KS and squares, 

 which ia notable as having been early occupied by market 

 gardeners. Belonging to the city of Westminster it was 

 originally iu the paviahes of St. Martiu-iu-tbe-Fields and St. 

 Mirgaret's; subsequently by change oi boundary a considerablo 

 siction has been transferred to St. George's, Hanover Square. 

 Centuries ago much o( this land was overflowed at certain 

 btitts of the tide; it is even yet, decpite the largj deposits 

 which have been made unou it, below the levsd of the stream. 

 When it first cama under cultivation, iadeed, the earth had 

 th>( character of peat or bog, but it was partially drained by 

 numerous little cuts or streamlets. This region we now know 

 as MiUbank and Thames Bink, and some part of it constitutes 

 South Bilgravia, with, as must be acknowledged, not at all a 

 desirable fubsoil. There are many open places ia the district, 

 thickly as it is studded with houses, aud here and there factories, 

 but it is diffioult to realise that it was formerly fields, gardens, 

 and commons; for Tothill Fields, borderiur^ on St. James's 

 Park aud formerly extending towards Millbauk, was grazed on 

 far centuries by cattle, and city herbalists gathered Coltsfoot 

 with other wild plants u-:ed as medicameuts on its eloping 

 banks ; and from one of these, which rose to tbo height of a 

 hill and served as a watchman's statiou, it had its name of 

 Tot or Toothill (Z'o toot, was to look out from an elevation 

 over the lower country). Millbank doubtless had its designa- 

 tion from an ancient mill, which was a landmark to those 



