March 11, 1875. ) 



JOURNAL OP HORTIODIiTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



803 



jng hot-water pipes. I have tried this and various other 

 methods, and much prefer plaster of Paris to cement. The 

 joint is ready for use in ten minutes, and is easily cut out if 

 required.— J. T. 



DALKEITH.— No. 2. 

 Little if anything of a purely ornamental nature is noticed 

 in this paper, the notes being principally devoted to fruit, for 

 which Dalkeith is so deservedly famed. The great master 

 of Grape culture, Mr. W. Thomson, here achieved some of 

 his greatest triumphs, and his able successor, Mr. Dunn, has 

 won an honourable place in the roll of British gardeners by 

 his excellent practice and successful results. Before entering 

 the houses it may be observed that the illustration (fig. 52), 



rig. r,2.— jr.inlaguc l;iiJ;;c. 



gives a rather inadequate idea of the Montague Bridge with 

 the little natural cascade and foaming river bounding over its 

 stony bed below. Another (I think north-east) view of the 

 Palace is seen in the distance with the Ivy clinging to its old 

 walls, and from this spot the prospect is not devoid of the 

 picturesque. This, however, is not the theme, and we hasten 

 into the houses and briefly discuss their contents. The glass 

 ranges are very extensive and are in excellent order and keeping. 

 The first house we enter is a Muscat vinery SO feet long, 

 18 feet wide, and 1:> feet high, in which there was a good crop 

 of various sorts of Muscats and late black Grapes for winter 

 supply. Muscat of Alexandria, Tynuinghame Muscat, Barnes' 

 Muscat, Early Muscat, Archerfield Muscat, and Scott's Muscat 

 are all growing in this house side by side with no perceptible 

 difference between them — in fact, if the labels were detached 

 from the Vines it would defy the cleverest expert to tell the 

 one sort from the other. Scott's Muscat is here thought to 

 be the best of the above varieties, being, perhaps, the best 

 setter and having the strongest constitution, iinishing its 

 bunches rather better, but the ripe bunch is not to be dis- 

 tinguished from a well-finished Muscat of Alexandria. We 

 also noticed good examples of the Duchess of Bueoleuch Grape 

 with berries considerably larger than usual with this variety, 

 which is generally not worth growing except where high flavour 

 is appreciated. The black Grapes consisted of good Alicante, 

 a very useful winter Grape ; Gros Guillaume (Barbarossa or 

 " SeacliiTe " Black); Muscat Hamburgh (does badly here on 

 its own roots, and is being all inarched or grafted on Ham- 

 burgh or Muscat stocks) ; Madresfield Court, grafted on Lady 

 Downes', with good bunches and magnificent berries, the 



largest in the house, having a fine flavour and keeping well. 

 It is liable to crack if care is not token to protect the roots 

 from excessive wet after the berries begin to colour. It is 

 kept quite dry here and never cracks, but has done so when 

 watered after showing colour. Gros Colman had a good crop 

 of moderate-sized bunches and splendid berries, but deficient 

 in colour and coarse in flesh and flavour, and, on the whole, 

 not equal to the Alicante in use at the same time— that is, mid- 

 winter. Mrs. Pince's Black Muscat is also grown here and in 

 some other of the vineries, but it is to be discarded, as being 

 very unsatisfactory, neither finishing properly nor keeping 

 well, nor having the slightest taste of Muscat flavour. 



The earliest vinery is 60 feet long and 11 feet wide. It is a 

 nice, useful, compact house with the border wholly inside, 

 and heated underneath by hot-water pipes, which are, how- 

 ever, seldom used, and are not approved of except in cold wet 

 soils, and then they must be used with extreme caution. The 

 Vines are two years old and coming into good bearing con- 

 dition. They are started in October to be ripe by Easter, the 

 supply of old and new Grapes always overlapping each other 

 by a few weeks. The late-kept Lady Downes', as long as they 

 will keep, being preferred for flavour, although the new Grapes 

 make the handsomest dish. The back wall of this house, as 

 well as of the Pine stoves, is fitted-up with shelves for Straw- 

 berries and French Beans, which are forced in large quantities. 

 Of the latter Oaborn's is found to be the best in size, flavour, 

 and productiveness. 



We now turn into the late vinery, a lean-to, 100 feet long 

 and 12 feet wide. Black Lady Downes' is the principal sort 

 grown, and is bearing a good crop of even-sized well-finished 

 bunches with splendid berries. White Lady Downes' also does 

 well in this house, and, except in colour, is an exact counter- 

 part of the black variety. Both keep equally well on the 

 Vines till the middle or end of April, when the last bunches 

 are cut to allow the Vines to be started. To prevent bleeding 

 the shoots on which the bunches hang are all disbudded early 

 in February back to the eye required to start, and the shoot 

 ringed outside that eye to prevent such a flow of sap to the 

 buuch as would burst the berries when growth begins. Flavour 

 being a first consideration here, this plan is adopted in pre- 

 ference to cutting the crop in February or March, and keep- 

 ing them in the fruit room on the bottle system, by which 

 means they keep well enough, but are found by Mr. Dunn to 

 deterioratein flavour. A single Vine of a few other late sorts 

 is grown in this house for variety, Trebbiano and Black 

 Alicante being the best of them. The supply from this house 

 meets the earliest vinery in April, and so long as the old fruit 

 lasts it is preferred for eating, however fine the early Grapes 

 may be. Leaving the vinery we take a peep into three ranges 

 of old-fashioned single-hght pits each 1.50 feet long, in which 

 are grown the succession and sucker Pines, Cucumbers, IMelons, 

 and plants, all looking well. 



We now enter a pair of lean-to houses 80 feet long and 

 14 feet wide, the first one being a Fig house, in which the 

 Figs (White Marseilles) are planted out in a bed in the centre 

 of the house, trained as bushes, and yield good crops, which 

 are ripe in April. This Fig is found to be very prolific, and of 

 delicious flavour if kept in a cool fruit room for a day or so 

 after being gathered ripe. A few other sorts of Figs are grown 

 in pots on a stage, but none of them equal the one named in 

 productiveness and other good qualities for forcing. The 

 other division is an early Muscat vinery, the crop being ripe 

 and cut in .June for theLoudon season. The Vines are old 

 and worn out, and the roots being wholly in an outside border 

 it is surprising they bear a crop at all ; but house and Vines 

 very much want renewing. The leaves being off the Vines, a 

 bed in the centre of the house was used to ripeu-ofT a good 

 batch of Tea Roses in pots, amongst which we noticed some 

 very fine plants in 12-inch pots of Mart'cbal Niel and Gloire 

 de Dijon budded upon a seedling Briar by Mr. Hugh Dickson, 

 Belmont Nursery, Belfast. They were young plants received 

 from Mr. Dickson last winter, and being potted and grown-ou 

 liberally they have each made several growths 12 to 14 feet in 

 length ; being strong aud healthy, and ripening-off well, there is 

 every prospect of their producing good crops of their beautiful 

 flowers, which are always in demand, and especially early in 

 the season, when these will be in flower. 



Wo now come to the principal range of forcing houses. 

 These are lean-to's about .'iTO feet long, divided into nine com- 

 partments of unequal lengths and widths. The first house we 

 enter is the earliest Peach house, ripe in the beginning of May, 

 the next following closely at its heels, and the third ripe in 



