300 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[May 6, 
Ar the anniversary meeting of the Horticultural 
Society on Monday last it must have been gratifying 
to the friends of Horticulture to learn how much real 
and most essential service this truly great association 
is quietly rendering to Gardening. Exclusive of their 
ordinary expenses, the Society has been able within the 
year to publish a new edition of their invaluable Fruit 
Catalogue (at a price which places it within the reach 
of every journeyman gardener), and to lay out 7210. 
upon importing plants and seeds from foreign coun- 
tries, 340/. upon the improvement of hothouses at the 
arden, and no less a sum than 833/. in medals and 
other rewards to gardeners for their horticultural 
skill. These facts require no comment. 
It was announced on the same occasion that Mr. 
Edward Solly’s interesting lectures on the Chemistry 
of Vegetation are about to be resumed this year in a 
new form, and that, although the Society at large does 
not subscribe to the funds which defray the cost of the 
chemical experiments, yet all Fellows of the Society 
would be admitted to the lectures without charge. 
In considering the money part of Mr. Pusey’s 
Drainage Bill, we do not find anything to object to, so 
far as its provisions go; but we think it would be 
desirable to introduce some additional clauses. The 
bill enables the Commissioners to raise money for 
their own purposes, and afterwards to charge land 
with the amount expended in effecting their works ; 
but we do not perceive any clause enabling occupiers 
or proprietors to borrow money for carrying out their 
part of the work after the operations of the Commis- 
sioners have terminated. The general want of floating 
vapital among landlords and tenants is in itself a great 
bar to such expensive work as the under-drainage of 
Jand, after the main watercourses are constructed or 
improved, which, as we understand it, is all this bill 
contemplates ; it will therefore be necessary that 
money should be borrowed for the purpose. But 
capitalists will be shy of advancing money, unless the 
security to be given them is of the best description ; 
and they will scarcely regard tenancy-at-will, or, 
rhaps, tenancy of any kind, or heavily-mortgaged 
nd, as satisfactory security in the actual state of the 
law. It therefore seems desirable that advantage 
should be taken of the present opportunity to enable 
both landlords and tenants to offer better terms to 
age of towns; but, for the present at Jeast, we must 
leave these matters to other and abler hands. 
FIG-TREES IN VINERIES. 
In compliance with the request of your correspondent, 
«ow. C.,’” I send you a short statement of the mode of 
treatment pursued with the Fig-trees in my Vineries; and 
as I am notable to say what the kind of Figis, I forward to 
you a box containing a small branch, with several half- ripe 
Figsonit. I also inclose a branch with a bunch of black 
Hamburgh Grapes, cut from the Vine which grows oppo- 
site to that part of the Fig-tree from which the branch 
was taken. The bunch of Grapes is the smallest of two 
which were on the same shoot, and it was to have been 
removed to-day at any rate. I send the Grapes, to show 
that I do not sacrifice my Vines for the sake of the Figs, 
and I shall be glad to hear if you think they denote a suf- 
ficiently healthy condition or not. 
The Vinery was erected in 1826, and in that year the 
Figs were planted. They received no peculiar treatment 
for several years; but about five years ago my gardener 
partially root-pruned them, by cutting round them with a 
spade, at the distance of rather less than two feet from 
the stems, and he then top-dressed with leaf-mould and 
turf broken down. They now get a very liberal supply of 
liquid manure from the farm-yard every spring (as do also 
the Vines), and have daily a quantity of water till the 
fruit begins to ripen. Some of the small branches are 
trained back, which has a tendency to make them bear 
better. Since the plants were root-pruned they have 
made much less young wood than formerly, and at every 
eye a Fig is formed. Many fall off, but still numbers 
remain on, as the branch sent will show. The trees are 
never pruned. I may mention, further, that we have 
practised ringing on one of the trees with very great 
success. The houses are heated with the old flues. 
omitted to state that we ripen the second crop also.— 
J.N.V. [Specimens of the Vines and Figs in question 
were sent with this communication, and it would be im- 
possible to find either in more vigorous health.] 
i 
TRELLIS FOR CLIMBERS. 
IMPROVEMENT IN VINE BORDERS. 
Mucu has been written on the shrivelling and shanking 
of Grapes, and the rust upon them, and many are the 
opinions which have been offered as to the causes which 
have produced these diseases, if I may so term them. 
But all writers agree that a warm dry border is necessary 
for the well-being of the Vine ; a knowledge of this fact 
has led to the adoption of several methods of rendering 
Vine-borders dry and warm, and when success has 
attended any method, the health of the Vines and the 
flavour of their fruit have always been improved, the wood, 
has been well ripened, and the probability of a good crop 
every year made certain. 
In some situations a simple excavation of a foot or two 
in depth, filled with a suitable soil, will be sufficient to 
make the Vine grow luxuriantly, and bear fine fruit. In 
other situations, every care in draining the border and in 
raising it above the surrounding level scarcely suffices, a8 
far as it (the border) is concerned, to insure, especially in 
early forcing, a successful cultivation of the Vine. 
The consideration of these circumstances suggested 
that an improvement might be made in Vine-borders, by 
forming a cavity underneath them of the whole length and 
breadth of the border, and to make the air of this cavity 
as warm, or warmer, than the air of the Vinery itself. 
Supposing the cavity to be three feet high at the side 
next the house, and two feet high at the front of the 
border, if a small single hot-water pipe were carried round 
the front and two ends of this cavity, it would, I think, 
be quite sufficient to keep up a tolerable warmth in such 
a place. It would be necessary, perhaps, to raise the 
border three or four feet higher than the floor of the house, 
so that the bottom of the cavity might not be much lower 
than the bottom of the house, and also that one of the 
pipes in the house, say the lower or return-pipe, 
might be made to make the tour of three sides of the 
cavity, before it emptied itself into the boiler; or, 
instead of using one of the principal pipes, might not an 
independent pipe be brought from the boiler for the sole 
purpose of heating the cavity? But all Vineries are not 
heated by hot water; still, I think, the cavity might be 
heated with a smoke-fiue as easily as with a hot-water 
pipe. The cavity being two or three feet in height, there 
would be room enough to allow a person to crawl in to 
examine the pipes or flue. It would be easy to make it 
deeper if it should be thought best to do so. Supposing 
that neither flue nor hot-water pipe were carried round 
the cavity, yet the air, to a certain extent, might be warmed 
if any communication could be made between it and the air 
in the Vinery ; suchcommunication might probably be made 
by openings in the front wall of the Vinery. The cavity 
might be either arched over with bricks, or covered over 
with large slabs of slate, or stone supported by pillars ; it 
would be advantageous, perhaps, not to have the covering 
of the cavity too closely fitted together, as any interstices 
left between the stones would allow the heat from the 
cavity to reach the border above more readily. If slabs 
of stone were used, they might have holes drilled all over 
them ; if a layer of stones were placed on the roof of the 
cavity before the soil was put on, it would help to dis- 
seminate the heat more regularly through the border. To 
remedy the ill effects which cold rain or snow would have, 
if allowed to fall on the border, I should recommend Mr. 
Appleby’s method of putting a layer of long litter on the 
border, and over that a tarpaulin (see Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, October 9, 1841.) If the air in the cavity 
below the border were kept very moist, there would pro- 
bably be less necessity for watering the border above. 
It must be understood that I speak of the early forcing 
of the Grape. In later forcing the cavity might be found 
useful during cold wet summers. I shall be glad to see 
the opinion of some of your experienced correspondents as 
to whether what I have suggested would be likely to be an 
improvement or not.—Observator. 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. XVIII. 
THE propagation of plants by cuttings is an operation 
more dependant upon art than any other which horticul- 
turists have to contend with; for, in addition to the inci- 
pient plant being cut off from all communication with its 
parent, it is also deprived of all support, except the little 
matter it contains within itself, and which is necessary to 
the formation of roots. Therefore, it is obvious that it 
is not only requisite’ to surround it by circumstances 
favourable to the production of roots, but also to prevent, 
as far as possible, any injury it might sustain by the 
evaporation of its juices. Hence the indispensability of a 
humid atmosphere in propagating-pits, and of covering 
cuttings with hand or bell-glasses, to prevent the escape 
of moisture, when it is inconvenient to keep the whole 
atmosphere of a pit in a saturated state. 
One of the greatest mistakes we commit in the propa- 
gation of hard-wooded greenhouse plants, is placing the 
cuttings in heat directly they are inserted in the cutting- 
pot. This ought never to be done, because the increased 
temperature and humid atmosphere cause the cuttings 
to grow, and, consequently, to expend that small quantity 
of matter which ought to go to the formation of roots; 
and hence, though the cuttings may appear fresh and 
vigorous for a few days, or even weeks, it will generally 
be found that after that time they will turn black at their 
bases, and ultimately die off. These remarks are appli- 
cable to the propagation of hard-wooded plants ; but soft- 
wooded things, such as Petunias, Verbenas, Heliotropes, 
and Pelargoniums, which are more excitable, will root 
freely if put at once into strong bottom-heat ; though it 
must be remarked that such treatment is not to be recom- 
mended for cuttings taken from plants in the open air or 
a cool greenhouse. The most certain way is to place the 
cuttings in a close moist atmosphere, the temperature of 
which corresponds with that in which they had been pro- 
duced, until they have formed the ‘‘ callus ;” after which, 
if removed to a moderate bottom-heat, they will root with 
great freedom, 
In the preparation of cuttings, great diversity of 
opinion exists among practical men; some advocating 
the removal of a part, if not all of the leaves, while others 
as strenuously exclaim “touch not a leaf.’ Under 
certain circumstances, both parties are right; because, if 
cuttings cannot be placed where all loss from evaporation 
1s cut off, the more the evaporating surface is decreased 
the better, since it is better that, the leaves should be 
removed at once than that they should remain upon the 
cutting until they have exhausted it of its juices, which 
they would do in very short time. But if a moist atmo- 
sphere can be kept round the cutting, then, I say, “touch 
nota leaf,” except such as would make the cutting-pot 
crowded with foliage, because the leaves contain the 
matter out of which roots are formed, and are the labora- 
tories for the preparation of other matter to form branches 
and flowers. 1 have before remarked that cuttings 
cannot be too short if they possess the parts necessary 
to form a plant; and this fact can hardly be too much 
insisted upon, 
From the above the Amateur will be able to glean that 
the concomitants of success in the propagation of ae 
jou of he 
are, a moist phere, a proper p 
