March 16, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE OABDENER. 



205 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



SYRINGING VINES— FORCED STRAWBERRIES. 



an old amateiu- like myself the differences 

 of opinion about the treatment of Vines by 

 the doctors is very remarkable. On page 

 178, No. 770, in the article of "Doings of 

 the Last and Work for the Present Week," 

 Mr. Douglas says that to syringe the Vines 

 would sadly mar the appearance of the 

 fruit ; while Mr. Pearson, no mean autho- 

 rity, in his " Vine Culture " says, " Except 

 when in flower we use the syringe every 

 afternoon, unless the weather be cold and damp, till the 

 Grapes show colour, and I know ' no other way " in which 

 they can be kept free from red spider." Thus we poor 

 amatem's are in a fix, for if we syringe we spoil the bloom 

 of our Grapes, and if we do not syringe we are eaten up 

 with red spider. When first I grew Grapes I had, or 

 rather my Vines had, red spider ; then I, under advice, 

 bought a syringe and spoiled my Grapes, each of which 

 had a ring of white round it. Now I neither have red 

 spider nor white rings. 



Noticing that Plums and other fruits do not have their 

 bloom destroyed by the pure rain- drops, I came to the 

 conclusion that it was not the water, but something de- 

 posited from it that did the injury, and I bought a char- 

 coal filter ; this, as soon as the berries are set, is placed 

 on a shelf with a four-gallon can underneath and the tap 

 left open, and I fill it from time to time as I find it 

 empty, cleaning it well out every week. I obtain daily 

 three or four gallons of water quite pure and of the same 

 temperature as the house, and with this my Vines are 

 syringed once or twice a-day according to the warmth 

 and brightness of the day. Since then I have had no red 

 spider, and I find the bloom on the Grapes uninjured. 



What I find most troublesome are the blue-bottle flies, 

 which certainly injure the bloom by flying against the 

 bunches, and eat the Grapes as well. My houses are 

 lofty, with circular roofs (Cranston's), and it is no joke 

 cUmbing up to tack hexagon netting over the ventilators, 

 besides which the flies come in at the doors, and some 

 are perhaps even bred in the house. 



I find some Grapes, such as Trentham Black and Royal 

 Muscadine, are very liable to crack, although under the 

 same treatment ; others, as Black Hamburgh and Sweet- 

 water, never crack with me. I am unwilling to discard 

 my Trentham Black, as all my friends and myself think 

 it a much better-flavoured Grape than the Black Ham- 

 burgh ; it is also earlier, and gives me larger and heavier 

 bunches. I find that cutting the laterals below the bunch 

 halfway through with a very fine saw checks the cracking 

 at once, but I think slightly injures the growth of the 

 Grapes, making the berries somewhat smaller than they 

 might otherwise have been. 



Here again the doctors differ. One gardener says the 

 border must have been too dry ; another, they must be 

 wet ; but I found that one Vine planted in an outside 

 border, which was certainly wet enough last year, did not 

 crack at all like the other planted inside, and I cannot 



No. 781.— Vol. XXX., New Sebieb. 



help thinking that both are right, and that possibly at some 

 time or other the inside border might have been a little 

 too dry for si few days, causing the skin of the Grape to 

 become somewhat inelastic ; when the border was watered 

 it could not expand with sufficient readiness to take up 

 all the sap, and so the fruit cracked. 



These Vines grew last season with great vigour, and 

 even when the fruit was colouring were making fresh 

 growth, so that almost daily I had to stop some growing 

 points, and they were still covered with those spangles of 

 extravasated sap which are always so satisfactory to the 

 eyes of their cultivator. 



Most amateurs who grow Vines grow a few Straw- 

 berries in pots. I generally grow two or three hundred 

 pots on shelves level with the ventilators, of which there 

 are three at each side of the houses, the entire length of 

 the range. With Black Prince, the earliest and most 

 prolific of our Strawberries, I always produce a good 

 crop ; their only fault is they are small — in these days 

 " there are giants " — and I fail to get more than three or 

 four good fruit on Keens' Seedling or British Queen. I 

 am trying this year four different varieties — President, 

 Di-. Hogg, Vicomtesse Huricart de Thury, and Rivers' 

 Eliza, but I see several of these but not one of the Black 

 Prince are blind, and some of them went off when in their 

 blooming pots out of doors with a disease I have not 

 seen before — the leaves and stems turned black, though 

 the roots seemed sound. Cannot some one raise a Straw- 

 berry as early and prolific as Black Prince, but a size 

 larger ? 



I find by thinning the bloom buds to two or three in 

 a truss that the berries are much improved in size. I 

 have generally four or five trusses of fruit on each plant. 

 I consider that the syringe plays a very important part 

 in keeping down red spider and green fly. I stick to Mr. 

 Rivers' prescription of malt duet anil horse droppings, 

 which should be rubbed through a fine sieve and mixed 

 in equal proportions. This is placed on the pots as soon 

 as the Strawberries are swelling then- first fruit, and the 

 effect is highly satisfactory. — J. R. B. 



A RHODODENDRON NURSERY. 



Having been growers of Rhododendrons for more than 

 thirty years, a few observations from us may be useful. 

 Our nursery is on the edge of Thome Moor, a peat bog 

 comprising several thousand acres, situated in a low flat 

 district at one time liable to be overflowed by the rivers 

 Trent, Ouse, and Don. The peat is an accumulation of 

 vegetable matter on a submerged forest, varying in depth 

 from 10 to 20 feet. The surface is flat, and is above the 

 level of the adjoining cultivated land, but being very much 

 composed of sphagnum and other mosses, and the surface 

 covered with Heath (Krica tetralix and E. vulgaris), the 

 water is retained as by a sponge, and until within a few 

 years it was too soft to bear any kind of cattle upon it. 



Our first essay at Rhododendron-growing was by the 

 purchase of a single little plant of R. ponticum for 5s., 

 which was planted in a small plot cultivated as a garden 



No. 113S.— Vol. LV., Old Sebies. 



