December '25, 18ti«. ] 



JOURNAL. OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



479 



Every one who has had little or much to clo with the culti- 

 vation of the Vine, will have noticed how readily the Vine finds 

 anything like loose limo rubbish within reach of its roots, and 

 that tho most healthy roots are always to be met with in that part 

 of tho border whore limo rubbish has been liberally used. My 

 object, then, in making the borders as described at page 290, is 

 to arrest the leading roots at each layer in their downward 

 progress through the border, and cause them to spread right 

 and left along each layer of bones and lime rubbish. This they 

 will speedily do, and will multiply their feeding roots a thousand- 

 fold during their progress through the thin and open layer. 

 As soon as they have permeated through each of these layers 

 thousands of roots will descend through the next layer of soil, 

 whero they will rind more solid food in which to become ma- 

 tured and established previous to reaching tho next open layer. 

 So they will continue to take firm hold of tho border as they 

 descend ; and by the time the bottom layer is reached, the whole 

 of tho border will have become thoroughly tilled with roots. The 

 main roots of the Vines will be kept in a healthy state in the 

 open layers of the border, and will be constantly sending out 

 innumerable rootlets in search of food, which will be supplied 

 to them in the shape of liquid manure after they have partly 

 exhausted the food within their reach ; and during their season 

 of growth they will be copiously supplied with water in a clear 

 state. 



If " H. S." (page 421), can only realise his splendid expec- 

 tations, he will be fortunate indeed, but there is a wide dif- 

 ference between expecting and having ; and between now and 

 next July his idol may be shattered, and his hope of cutting 

 half a ton of Grapes from Vines that have only been planted 

 one year, and been grown without any of the aids afforded by 

 artificial heat, may be a long way from being realised. 1 fear 

 the fancied large revenue to be derived therefrom will dwindle 

 down to a very small amount. But this will not be the worst 

 that may happen to " H. S.'s " Vines. My most serious advice 

 to " H. S.," is to forbear forcing his Vines this year or next, 

 unless he is prepared to root them all out next year, and incur 

 the expense of another I'lid in making borders for a fresh set of 

 Vines, besides about £20 worth of labour for growing these. I 

 fear he may find out that his Vines are not perfectly ripe. 

 He must not fancy because they have made such strong 

 growths that they are perfectly ripe and fit for forcing at once. 

 What I should do if I were " H. S.." and had his Vines under 

 my care, would be to keep the lights and ventilators open as 

 much as possible until the middle of next April, when the 

 Vines will begin breaking of their own accord. I should shorten 

 them back about the end of January to about . r > feet, and should 

 on no account allow them to bear any fruit next year, or if de- 

 termined to fruit them, I should moderate my expectations to 

 00 lbs. weight of Grapes, instead of half a ton. The climate of 

 Hounslow and Staines may be very favourable ; but at those 

 places, as at many others during the past season, the summer 

 was not warm enough to bring Vines to a sufficient state of ma- 

 turity to enable them to bear the severe ordeal of forcing at 

 such an early period as this, unless they had been growing in 

 houses where they would have had the benefit of artificial heat 

 from hot-water pipes or flues. 



Flags of all sizes are used for our Vine borders just as they 

 come to hand. If they are small the pillars will want placing 

 closer together, and where a flag is found to be too thin to bear 

 the weight of soil that may be placed on it, a brick is set on 

 end under the centre of it. Where there are plenty of flags to 

 he had at no great distance from the gardens, it is only a 

 question of labour in taking them out of the ground, and carting 

 them to the gardens ; and as for sods, there are thousands of 

 broad acres to cut from. I assure " H. S." that I made no 

 mistake in naming the quantity of bones I should use in each 

 nine-inch layer of soil. " H. S." has forgotten the bones in 

 the two-inch layer between the nine inch layers of soil ; and for 

 each nine-inch layer I use about three barrowfuls of lime 

 rubbish, and one of charcoal, aud about two pecks of bone. I 

 trust " H. S." may deem this sufficiently explicit. I never 

 advocate stable-manure for mixing in the main part of the 

 Vine border. I only use a little, and this thoroughly decom- 

 posed, in the top layer in which the Vines are planted, just 

 to encourage rapid root-action. I fear " H. S." has used too 

 much of it in his borders, and that it will ultimately prove an 

 evil rather than a benefit. Will " H. S.," if he still persists in 

 forcing his ninety Vines, give us a faithful statement of the 

 results, the condition of the Vines after forcing, and the 

 prospects for the future ? 



This word " future " reminds me that I have yet another 



foe to meet, who takes shelter under the spreading branches of 

 the Vine 1 , and subscribes himself " Vrns." Why not sign his 

 real namo? I dislike fighting an unknown antagonist. lam 

 glad, however, to find that his visit In Bishop StoillV.nl afforded 

 balm to soothe his despondency, and proved of so much pleasure 

 to him. "Vms" says (speaking of my article), "I read it 

 through carefully, and, I confess, felt thoroughly disheartened, 

 for it seemed to me that no man of moderate means could grow 

 Grapes if borders :! to 6 feet deep must be made after the ex- 

 pensive directions given by Mr. Wills. On a second perusal I 

 found that all his words referred to the future, ' to be or not 

 to be,' according to circumstances. As far as I can foretell, I 

 think he will reconsider some of his propositions, and simplify 

 them." Then it struck " Vrns " that he had read some account 

 of some wonderful Vines (Happy thought !), so off he goes to the 

 Great Eastern, and soon his doubts are removed, for Mr. Ward 

 speedily relieves his overburdened mind by describing how the 

 borders were made ; his idea as to how a Vine border should be 

 made is at once confirmed, and he hastens to cheer the dis- 

 heartened readers of Tnrc Journal of Horticulture, whose 

 senses had been shocked by my expensive propositions. 



"Vrns" gives a clear and straightforward account of what 

 he saw and learnt in the Bishop Stortford vineries. There is 

 another part of his letter, however, that I must quote. He 

 says, " All that is required is to make the front and back walls 

 of a height sufficient to allow of a border being made 3 feet 

 deep the whole width of the house ; and this, in a house 14 or 

 16 feet wide, would be amply sufficient for Vines for many, 

 many years, and with annual surface-dressings, probably as long 

 as a vinery would last [?] This method of making Vine borders 

 offers such a contrast to the complicated recommendations of 

 Mr. Wills as to merit notice, for simplicity in all gardening 

 operations should be a leading feature." A little further on he 

 says, " On inquiring of Mr. Ward, Mr. Miller's intelligent 

 gardener, I learnt that the border of the span-roofed house, 

 200 feet long and 30 feet wide, was tborouglily watered at the 

 end of March of the present year, and the same once a-mouth 

 till the middle of August." How would "Vrns" manage if 

 his supply of liquid food were only comatable once a-month 1 

 " No water has been given since, neither will any be given till 

 next spring." 



I should certainly feel very much surprised if I saw any 

 article by Mr. Thomson, or any other gardener endowed with a 

 moderate store of common sense, advocating such a barbarous 

 system of Vine culture as this; and I cannot but think — indeed, 

 I feel sure, that the Vines at Bishop Stortford will show next 

 season that the once-a-month system of watering during their 

 season of growth, and their being so long kept without any, is 

 highly injurious to them. I should consider this the greatest 

 objection to an inside border. "Vrns" is almost inclined to 

 say, " ' The climate is the maker of the soil :' therefore the 

 whole of a Vine border, whether for a lean-to or span-roofed 

 house, should be inside, aud not more than 3 feet deep, trust- 

 ing rather to surface-dressings than to deep, dank, five-feet 

 borders for the proper food of Vines." " Vms " should see 

 the Vine borders at Garston. This would dispel his curious 

 notions of climate making the soil 3 feet deep in inside 

 borders, and I hope to convey a clear account of some of the 

 Garston Vine borders to " Vms " and other readers of the 

 Journal shortly. 



Does " Vms " think Mr. Meredith would make outside and 

 deep Vine borders, when a great portion of his living depends 

 on the result, if he thought the Vines would not succeed in 

 them ? Mr. Meredith has to pay for all the sods he obtains 

 for his future Vine borders. Some idea may be formed of the 

 magnitude of these, when I state that the outside borders 

 which he intends adding to the vineries already, built, where 

 the Vines have been confined inside for three years, will cost 

 £500 ; but what will be the result when, after the roots of these 

 magnificent Vines have been confined within the walls of the 

 vineries for three or four years, the loose bricks are taken 

 away from between the pillars, and a well-made border is placed 

 outside the walls ? Why, it will be this : each Vine will be like 

 a giant refreshed ; the roots will quickly pass into the outside 

 border and take firm hold of it just as the young Vines have 

 established themselves, and are wanting extra nourishment to 

 enable them to bear immense bunches of splendidly coloured 

 berries. There is at Huntroyde an old Vine which was planted 

 nearly a hundred years ago ; this is planted outside. Its 

 branches were growing in what, when I came here, was an old 

 Pine-stove. Last year it made a shoot upwards of 70 feet long, 

 aud this year I have cut from it about thirty fine bunches of 



