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JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Mar 31, 1968. 



round the bed in which they are planted, pouring from time to 

 time a little fresh tar on the aawdnst. The slugs will not 

 face this. 



The plant which completes my trio is the Single Anemone. 

 Some may not consider the harmony good here, as this plant 

 is different in character from the foregoing. To this I will not 

 object, but when the flowers are seen in large masses, their 

 brilliant and diversified colours burnished by the early sun, 

 and their glittering forms dancing in the gentle breeze, which 

 is drinking the morning dews from their gorgeous cups, they 

 are a sight dazzling to look upon. The foliage, too, how 

 elegant it is ! a garb, indeed, which many a Fern might bo 

 prond to wear. And what is to prevent this plant from be- 

 coming a staple object of beauty in every garden ? Simply 

 nothing but plenty of seed, which it yields in abundance, and 

 a patch of ground to grow it on. I am perfectly aware that to 

 produce individual flowers of high excellence some preparation 

 is necessary. I am not now looking at it as a florists' flower, 

 bat in its adaptability for general effect, and the simplest mode 

 of managing it. This, then, after a considerable degree of 

 experience, I find to be by sowing a bed of seed annually early 

 in May, or as soon as ripe. Sow in drills about 9 inches apart, 

 well watering them previous to putting in the seed, and keep 

 the ground moist and shaded until the seedlings appear. Thin 

 them out when large enough to handle. Give them generous 

 summer treatment by frequently stirring the ground, and 

 occasionally water them with weak liquid manure. If well 

 attended to in all these respects, and the weather is mild, they 

 will commence flowering the same autumn. 



When the beds are cleared of their summer occupants lift 

 the Anemones in clumps, and plant them in the beds as thickly 

 as it is possible to crowd them in. In March, April, and May 

 they will give a return which will amply compensate for the 

 time and trouble expended in their preparation. The roots 

 can of course be token up and planted again in the autumn, 

 but the summer beds are seldom cleared in time for them to 

 flower sufficiently early by this mode, and if planted in reserve 

 I have not found them remove so well, and make such certain 

 and satisfactory progress as seedlings. A gentleman, a former 

 employer, on April "JOth writes me : " The Anemones, as usual, 

 are truly splendid, the attraction and admiration of the neigh- 

 bourhood." This, I am sure, is only doing them the simple 

 justice which their beauty demands. — J. W. 



THE MEANS FOR PREVENTING DAMPNESS 

 ON GRAPES. 



" Why does my neighbour make his Grapes hang tUl the 

 end of January, while mine are mouldy in December ?" To 

 some nothing seems so mysterious in the cultivation of the 

 Grape as this difference, and therefore I venture to offer 

 a few remarks on the subject. 



It must be owned, that if Grapes are more valuable at one 

 time than another, that time is the Christmas holidays, and 

 it is provoking to find that the beautiful bunches of Grapes, 

 which in November promised to decorate many a Christmas 

 dessert, are shrivelling and blue with mouldiness when they 

 are really wanted. That some persons do not experience an in- 

 ConTenienco of this kind is well known, and their neighbours, 

 wonder at a success which no pains of their own will secure, 

 and which have only one fault, that of misdirection. Grapes 

 are ripened well and then protected with a care which defeats 

 itself. The vinery is shut up closely to keep out damp, fire« 

 are lighted to complete the ripening, and greenhouse plants 

 are brought in to participate in the shelter. The first two are 

 the provisions made for safety ; they are in reaUty the conditions 

 of destruction. 



When Grapes are perfectly weU ripened they have within 

 themselves the elements of preservation in a variable degree. 

 Fleshy sweet berries, such as Muscats, have the gi-eatest ten- 

 dency to remain unchanged ; juicy, sub-acid sorts, like the Black 

 Hamburgh and R .\\.'etwaters, on the contrary have the least. 

 The difference aypears to depend upon the proportion of sugar 

 they respectively form ; the sweetest Grape keeps best, the most 

 acid worst. In either case dampness promotes decay, dryness 

 arrests it. There is no doubt that by a very skilful manage- 

 ment of warm dry air, raisins might be prepared from Sweet- 

 water Grapes as they now are from Muscats ; but in a country 

 like England, with the atmosphere always containing so much 

 water suspended in the form of invisible vapour, some pre- 

 cautions must be taken to deprive the air of its moisture as far 



as practicable. The question is. What are those precautions ? 

 Merely to shut up a vinery is to do nothing, or worse than 

 nothing. Air is not the less damp when enclosed between 

 brick walls and a glass roof. As it was when shut up so it 

 remains, changed by nothing except the addition of more 

 moisture by indraught through the door, roof, and ventilators. 

 Plants brought in for shelter contribute nothing to dryness ; 

 on the contrary, the perspiration of their leaves very sensibly 

 diminishes it ; moreover, during the cold nights of December 

 the aqueous vapour of the house itself — a most formidable 

 enemy, condenses on the glass roof, and drips upon the 

 bunches ; then the footstalks of the berries soon become brown 

 and dead, moulds— funguses — invade the bunches, and corrup- 

 tion spreads among them. 



What ought to be done is this. The Grapes being ripe, the 

 inside of the vinery should be made as dry as possible by the 

 constant admission of dry warm air whenever the mid-day is 

 warm and sunny, and it should be still further dried in damp 

 weather by slightly heating the flues or hot-water pipes. It is 

 not a bad plan, indeed, to open all the ventilators for a few 

 days, a brisk heat being maintained at the same time. In this 

 manner the floors, walls, and other objects will be sufficiently 

 deprived of their moisture by the rapid passage of air in con- 

 sequence of the inequality of temperature between the interior 

 and exterior of the house. At no time under any pretence 

 ought water to be admitted. Good gardeners know this, but 

 amateurs do not. In Spain, where the finest dried Grapes in 

 the world are prepared, it is found by experience, that if only 

 a little dew falls on the Grapes while drying, although they 

 are sweet fleshy Muscats, the raisins are apt to spoil when 

 packed in boxes. Dryness of the air and as much ventilation 

 as it is possible to give, are the conditions to be secured if 

 ripe Grapes are to be kept long during the winter. _ _ - 



If, however, the roofs of the vineries are in a bad condition, 

 always letting in drip whenever there is a little wet outside, it 

 is useless trying to thoroughly counteract the dampness inside, 

 but such a query as I began my subject with, would not be 

 asked by any sensible person whose houses were in this state. 

 A friend who manages one of the now leading fruit-growing 

 estabhshments in the county of Hants, although himself a 

 most successful Grape-grower, found a difficulty on entering 

 into his new situation four or five years ago, to add to the 

 table requisites on Christmas-day a bunch of Grapes worth 

 eating, yet he had 212 feet run of vinery. Defects in this 

 range, which were the cause of the destruction of so much 

 fruit, were soon pointed out. No Grapes could be better 

 ripened ; but dampness in the vineries was the evil, and this 

 could not be remedied, for they were pronounced to be badly 

 ventilated and badly glazed, and, perhaps, worn out as well. 

 Be this as it may, this range came down, and has been re-, 

 placed by a new one thoroughly waterproof, properly venti- 

 lated, and in every respect worthy of its name, and although 

 this is the first year the Vines have fruited under their new 

 roof, the change already has effected the object aimed at, for 

 not only was the table ornamented by Grapes at Christmas, 

 but for three months afterwards. 



Something more may be done. If Grapes may be ruined by 

 moisture faUing on their surface, their preservation may be 

 rendered more difficult by the introduction of superfluous 

 moisture into their interior. We must not imagine that Vines 

 are incapable of attracting dampness from the soil when 

 Grapes are ripe. On the contrary, so long as Grapes are alive 

 — that is to say, so long as their stalks are green, they imbibe 

 sap from the branches, the branches replace their loss by 

 sucking the stem, and the stem replenishes itself from the 

 watery matter which the roots collect out of the soil. The 

 only way to mitigate this evil is to keep the borders also dry. 

 When a vinery is surrounded by hard gravel walks under 

 which the Vine roots lie, the casing of gi-avel, half-baked 

 during the autumn, keeps off water for a month or two till the 

 gravel is loosened by a thaw, and by that time, in this country, 

 Grapes generally cease to be much wanted. When, as is most 

 common. Vine borders consist of soft naked soil, they soon 

 become filled with moisture if exposed to the weather. At the 

 same time the temperature of the soil has not fallen low 

 enough to render the roots absolutely torpid. Last December 

 the ordinary soil of a garden stood, at 2 feet below its surface, at 

 48°, near London, and in a warm Vine border must have been 

 50', which is about the ground temperature at which the Vine 

 commences its spring growth in this country. Under such 

 circumstances roots in full action will absorb water with some 

 force, and this must indirectly tell upon Grapes and diminish 



