January 30, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



83 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



JAN. SO— FEB. 5, 1866. 



.Tasminom ligustrilolium. 



Hilary term ends. 



Acacia lincinata. 



Purification. CANDLEilAS Day. 



Acaeia floribunda. 



Sexagesima Sunday. 



.\cacia grandis. 



Average Temperaturo 

 near London. 



Day. 

 44.4 

 44.4 

 43.5 

 43.9 

 44.6 

 44.8 

 45.0 



Night. 

 32.1 

 30.2 

 31.1 

 31.4 

 30.8 

 32.9 

 33.6 



Alean. 

 38.2 

 37.3 

 37.3 

 37.6 

 37.7 

 38.9 

 39.6 



Rain in 



last 

 S9 years. 



Days. 

 19 

 17 

 12 

 13 

 19 

 18 

 17 



Snn 

 Rises. 



h. 

 44af 7 



Snn 

 Sets. 



m. h. 

 43af4 



45 4 



47 4 



49 4 



50 4 

 52 4 

 54 4 



Moon 

 Rises. 



52 4 



2 6 



12 7 



18 8 



23 9 



27 10 



28 11 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 

 O 

 li 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 20 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



13 36 



13 45 



13 53 



14 

 14 7 

 14 13 



Day 



of 

 Year. 



SO 

 31 

 82 

 83 

 34 

 35 

 36 



From observations taken near London dnringthe last thirty-nine years, the average day temperature of the week is 44.4° ; and its night tempera- 

 ture 31.7'. The greatest heat was 57', on the 1st, 1852 ; and 3rd, 1850; and the lowest cold 8', on the 31st, 1857. The greatest fall of rain was 

 0.75 inch. N.B. — The Calendar contains the names of plants flowering in the gi-eenhouse. 



THE COIL SYSTEM OF PLANTING \TNES. 



/N a recent Number of The 



JoURX.U. OF HoRTICULTrRE 



Ml'. Rivers has recommend- 

 ed this s.ystem of planting 

 Vines, and a woodcut was 

 given to illustrate more 

 cleai-ly what he \\'ished to inculcate. Knowing that there 

 are various opinions held by experienced cultivators on the 

 coil system of planting the Vine. I fully expected that 

 some of yom- numerous con-espondents would ere tliis 

 have referred to the matter ; but as it has been so far 

 passed over, and the season is dra^\'ing near when Vines 

 are generallj" planted in great quantities, I have ventiu-ed 

 to address my mite in respect to tliis not-imimportaut 

 subject. It is a common proverb that " a bad beginning 

 often makes a good ending;" but in gardening, as in most 

 other imdertaklngs. tliis is the exception and not the rule. 

 I approach the subject feeling that whatever so acute a 

 man and so experienced a fi'uit grower as Mi\ Rivers 

 advances is worthy of being listened to with that deference 

 and com-tesy which his long years of experience and ob- 

 sen'ant eye deserve. 



The coiling of Vines, as many are aware, is by no means 

 a question of yesterdaj-. It is a method which caused a 

 goodly amount of discussion man}- j-ears ago. AVliatever 

 can be said in its favour or against it. it is easy to suppose 

 that to the inexperienced eye it presents not an imfavoiu'- 

 able aspect, but one which is striliing and specious : and 

 if incon-ect in principle — opposed to the laws and fimctions 

 of the Vine — it is. therefore, all the more dangerous. I 

 may at once avow that I consider it incorrect in theory, 

 and have found it not only useless in practice, but to some 

 considerable extent prejudicial to the well-doing of Vines. 

 especially for some years after thej- are so planted. How- 

 ever, I would not even on that account pronoimce indis- 

 criminate censure on Mr. Rivers's woodcut. At the same 

 time it must be admitted that we are veiy apt to follow a 

 leader -without even calling in question the correctness or 

 reasonableness of a path in which he leads us as the nearest 

 route to perfection or success. 



In the first place, I object to coil planting because I 

 think it opposed to the unerring laws of Natiu-e to biuy 

 that portion of a plant or tree m the earth wliich was 

 designed to be above gi'ound. It must be considered very 

 mmatm-al to biny the stem of a plant in the gi-ound. and 

 the evil consequences of doing so have, doubtless, been 

 clearly illustrated in the experience or obseiwation of many. 

 Tliis is too often the case where earth has been carelessly 

 heaped up against the stems of trees to the depth of only 

 a very few feet. I have seen numbers of ti-ees absolutely 

 killed in this way. Plants whose nature it is to nm along 



Ne. 253.— Vol. X., New SEEffis, 



the gi'oimd, or up the trunks of trees, emitting roots as they 

 proceed, do not have theii- stems bm-ied imder the gi-oimd. 

 I apprehend that the explanation of tliis fatal result to 

 trees is, that as the descending sap upon which the emis- 

 sion of roots so greatly depends cu-culates in the liber, its 

 channel is destroyed, and, consequently, its do-miward 

 coiu-sc to the roots inteniipted. The result is deatli to the 

 tree, except in the case of such subjects as can form a new 

 set of roots near the surface of the soil. Some plants 

 can overcome these difficulties with less damage than 

 others. However this position may be regarded, correct 

 or incorrect in theory, the facts referred to remain the 

 same. 



In my experience of Vine planting I have foimd that in 

 a certain degree, the residts of which I have been speaking 

 occiu- to the very letter whenever I have planted on the 

 coU or laying system, and I have, therefore, abandoned it 

 enth-ely. In 185!l I planted a vinery in the middle of June 

 with Vines stiiick from eyes that same spiing. A regular 

 set of Vines was planted in an outside border, introducing 

 them through holes in the front wall. Having plenty of 

 Vines. I planted a few inside on the back wall of the 

 house. The latter made two seasons' gi-o'svth. and were 

 fine strong canes in the autumn of 1S60. The house is 

 a naiTow one. not more than feet wide, and as I could 

 derive little benefit from the Vuies on the back wall I 

 resolved, instead of cutting them out or ti'aioing them 

 down the roof, to try how the laying system would aflect 

 them. They were layed about 8 inches deep in the in- 

 side border across to the front, and shortened back to 

 about 2-5 feet above the siu-face of the soil. That season 

 they had a regidar struggle to reach the top of the house, 

 and the growths tliey made were not half so strong as tliose 

 made on tlie back wall in the first year of planting. At 

 pi-uning time they were cut down again, and in 1802 they 

 gave but a soiTy account of themselves, though better than 

 in the first season after being layed in the border. I had 

 occasion to have to tm-n over the border in the winter of 

 1862, and found that these Vines had not made a root any- 

 where along theii' stems, except close to their necks — i. e., 

 near the surface of the soil : at that point the.y had tliick- 

 ened and emitted a bunch of roots iu a whorl all round the 

 stem. From tliis instance I conclude that the action of 

 the original root had been interfered with, and that imtil 

 another set of roots could be produced and was in vigorous 

 action, the growth of the Vines was most seriously inter- 

 fered vnth. They were carefully layed. with no right- 

 angle bends nor ruptui'es. 



I will now give another instance somewhat diftering from 

 the foregoing. In 1860 I planted some yoimg Hamburgh 

 Vines in a new border. They were splendid young Vines, 

 gi-own fi-om eyes in the prerious season, and planted in 

 Mai-ch. The vineiy is arched in fi-ont, and has a 12-feet 

 border inside. In planting some of these I layed them, 

 puttmg their roots about 4 feet fi'om the ft-out wall into 

 the mside border, thinking, perhaps, that this would induce 

 them to root fi-eely into the mside border, knowing how 

 prone all Vifie roots are to • 

 the outside border. Well, 



No. 905.— Vol. XXXV., Old Seeies. 



Lilt; AJiaiViC tJyJL^.l^l. "..v^..^"o 



I proceed tlu-ough the arches into 

 what next ? these Vines stood 



