May 4, 1876. J 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



341 



STORING SOIL FOE VINE BOEDEES. 



W^^ OUR eoiTespondent " A Northern Gar- 

 ""^ DENER," who discourses interestingly on this 

 subject, overlooks, I think, one or two im- 

 portant coneiderations in recommending the 

 turf to be g.athered in summer in order to 

 secure it in a warm condition. 



Euring the last five and twenty years I 

 have, as master or man, had, perhaps, as 

 much experience in soil-.storing and in making 

 Vine and fruit-tree borders as falls to the lot 

 of most gardeners. Where I was a learner — the place 

 being extensive and the expenditure ungrudged— good 

 loam was used for many purposes, and hundreds of tons 

 were stored annually. The gardener believed in having 

 it in all degrees of mellowness, and I daresay there were 

 heaps of soil always to be found in tlie soil-yard from one 

 to five years old at least, with the fibre, in the older heaps, 

 entirely gone of course, and the soil as fine as meal — a 

 waste of material I afterwards found out. That was 

 twenty years ago, and since then I do not think a year 

 has passed in which I have not been engaged in border- 

 making in some capacity or other, and I have used 

 the soil at all seasons of the year and of different ages, 

 from the newly-obtained turf in a green state up to 

 the age of two years. Rightly or wrongly, therefore, I 

 may be supposed to have formed some opinions of my 

 own on the subject, and they are these : First, that sum- 

 mer is the worst period in the whole year to store turf; 

 and secondly, that so far as the temperature of the border 

 is concerned after filling-in it is of no consequence when 

 the soil is procured provided it is not used in a frozen 

 state, which is like storing ice, and a very different thing 

 from using it when it is only cold. 



I object to summer storage because, as gardeners can- 

 not always choose either their time or weather for such 

 work, tho soil is apt to be stored in a dry state, and 

 whether stacked in heaps or put into the borders at once 

 it is almost impossible afterwards to soak it thoroughly. 

 I have seen this so often exemplified and with such 

 troublesome consequences as to dispel all doubts from 

 my mind on the subject, and my advice would be to get 

 the turf in when it was moist, or even wet, and store it 

 in sheds or in ridges out of doors. It will become drier by 

 draining, but it will not become wetter, and will always 

 be in good condition for any purpose. Unless it is that 

 the outer sods hold the water in suspension like a sponge 

 and give it off again by evaporation in dry weather, it 

 has been a puzzle to me why stacked turf, or even loose 

 heaps, were so long in becoming soaked by the rains. For 

 the last two years we have been leading turf at in- 

 tervals, turf put to one side in a loose ridge in making a 

 coal-pit tramway through part of the estate, and I have 

 been surprised to find the inner or bottom sods in the 

 heaps almost as dry as when they were taken off, and of 

 course unfit for our purpose. 



Now as regards the temperature of the soil. Would 

 "A Northern Gardener" be surprised to hear that l| 

 No. 738.-V01,. XXX., Net Series. 



have taken up turf when it was at or about a temperature 

 of 35°, or lower, chopped it up and put it in the border 

 in that condition, and not long afterwards bad the bed 

 at a temperature of 75° or 80' without artificial aid, 

 except that it was an inside border? and had it been 

 outside, a tarpaulin or a covering of straw or dry litter 

 would have served the same purpose as a roof. The 

 reason of this rise in the temperature will be apparent, I 

 daresay, to most of your readers : it is duo simply to 

 fermentation, which always takes place when chopped 

 turf is laid up in a heap or bed, and is just in proportion 

 to the amount of vegetable matter it contains, and is the 

 first step in that process of decomposition which sets 

 plant-food at liberty, and makes fibry turf valuable for 

 Vine borders or anything else. Knowing this much, I 

 have never cared a straw what the temperature of the 

 soO was when wheeled in, provided it was in good con- 

 dition otherwise, and I certainly never knew any mishap 

 to occur to the Vines through deficient bottom heat. 

 There is just as much danger that the heat may be some- 

 times too great. I once had an inside border made up 

 with fresh turf to which had been added a certain propor- 

 tion of fresh horse droppings, which promoted fermenta- 

 tion so much that the temperatnre of the border rose to 

 90° and remained at that figure for a long time. — Vine- 

 Grower. 



ROSE STOCKS. 



I HAVE often lately felt very much inclined to say a 

 few words with respect to the question raised by my 

 friend Mr. Camm relative to Briar x\ Manetti or Ma- 

 netti V. Briar, but Church work during Lent and Holy 

 Week has prevented my being able to find time. At the 

 risk of repeating what I have before said at different 

 times in the Journal of Horticulture, 1 venture to en- 

 dorse all, or at all events nearly all, that Mr. Camm has 

 said. Ever since the year 1800 I have been a deadly foe 

 to the Briar. That year I had about one hundred good 

 standards in different parts of my garden, and about the 

 same, or rather more, KoKes on the Manetti. I cannot at 

 this distance of time venture to state the exact number, but 

 I do very distinctly remember this, that out of my standards 

 only two survived till the spring of 1801, and those were 

 so crippled that they eventually succumbed. I did not 

 lose a single plant on the Manetti stock, and though I do 

 not think any exactly remain in the same position at 

 present, as I have made so many alterations since, yet I 

 have several of the old Roses on the Manetti still alive 

 now and some Roses on their own roots — Gloire de Dijon 

 and General Jacqueminot in different situations, which 

 are giving me as good Eoses now as they did previously 

 to their being transplanted in 1801. 



Never since 1^00 have I attempted to grow any more 

 standards. I had no great love for them before. As far 

 back as 185'2 I had begun to plant Eoses on Manetti 

 stock in Nottinghamshire, and every year up to 1860 I 

 had more and more decided in favour of the Manetti. 

 Still, in old days it was difficult to obtain good plants on 

 the Manetti ; only a few nurserymen, aa Mr. Cranston at 



No. 1440.— Vol. LV., Old Series. 



