46 Retrospective Criticism. 



thoroughly decomposed, and one fourth vegetable mould of decayed tree 

 leaves, one sixth of good rotten horse and butchers' grub dung, and a little 

 slieep-duns;, with a moderate quantity of powdered bones and lime rubbish. 

 The borders were frequently watered with liquid manure water from the drain- 

 ings of a dunghill, and we never had a shriveled grape during the three years 

 I was there ; and these grapes have never failed taking the first prize for the 

 best-flavoured bunch at the Jedburgh Horticultural Society for many years 

 past : and there are vineries in this neighbourhood that have borders not above 

 3 ft. deep, upon a gravelly bottom, which have not been renewed these fifty years, 

 that have had abundance of shriveled grapes in them every year lately. 



I think the foregoing remarks prove that it is neither the coldness nor the 

 richness of the border that is the occasion of the shriveling. As to the fo- 

 liage of the vines upon the rafters shading those on the back wall, and causing 

 the fruit to shrivel, I think the circumstance may partly be accounted for in 

 this manner. The disease does not operate till the fruit commences colouring, 

 but it must have originated before that, say fourteen days. Vines are mostly, 

 by superior cultivators, slightly syringed and steamed until they commence 

 colouring. Might not those on the back wall, from being shaded, be longer 

 cold and moist, and not get the free circulation of air that they would get 

 upon the rafters ; independent of their other disadvantages of being so much 

 farther from the glass, and consequently receiving less heat from the sun's 

 rays, &c. ? Now, in my opinion, damp stagnant air is very much, if not 

 altogether, the cause of the shriveling of grapes after they commence their 

 second swelling. If there should not be a free circulation of air in the 

 house they will shi'ivel, and if the weather be wet or cloudy they will not do 

 with high forcing. I am certain, from experience, that W. H. is perfectly cor- 

 rect as to the air and keeping a dry atmosphere : also see Gardener's Alagazine, 

 vol. X. p. 137., and vol. xiii. p. 261., by Mr. Robertson. The remarks that fol- 

 low on the same page, by Agronome's nephew, are no proof at all ; for crowd- 

 ing a rafter with superfluous vines was certain to bring disease upon the 

 weaker-growing sorts ; and as to his green-house, I do not suppose the vines 

 he planted in it were either Muscats or Frontignans. As to Mr. W. Grey's 

 observations (Vol. for 1837, p. 301.), I can see no reason why grapes should 

 either be overcropped or get infested with the red spider in a vinery, supposing 

 that to be the reason ; and gardeners all know, or ought to know, that grapes 

 set best in a high moist atmosphere. 



An article or two have also appeared on the Rust on Vines (see Vol. XIII. 

 p. 263. and 355.). The latter remarks seem to imply that it is occasioned 

 by the foulness of the working gardeners' hands, &c. In the summer of 1830, 

 my father-in-law had two vineries very much infested with rust on the vines ; 

 it went on increasing every year till 1835, when he concluded that it pro- 

 ceeded from the roots. We accordingly dug out a trench the broad way of 

 the border, leaving 3 ft. of border along the front of the wall, forking the 

 roots as carefully as possible, and folding them up upon the 3 ft. border 

 that was left undisturbed, and shoveling the soil clean out down to the clay. 

 We then covered the bottom with lime rubbish, and beat it down to a sort of 

 pavement or floor, putting compost on the top of that 18 in. thick. The 

 roots were then carefully pruned and put on the compost, and the border 

 filled with the remainder. This compost consisted of good rich loam, &c., 

 thoroughly decomposed ; and of course the vines were pruned according as 

 their roots had been disturbed. This process had the desired effect, it 

 entirely cured the vines of rust. What strengthens my opinion as to the 

 roots is, that I have a vine here at one end of a large vinery, where there 

 is a cistern for holding the rain water that runs off the house in wet 

 weather, and the waste-pipe discharging itself into the border has soured 

 the soil at the roots of this vine, so that it has contracted rust. From what 

 has been said, I think there could be no mistake about my father-in-law's 

 grapes ; he always dressed and thinned them himself. 



By giving my opinion on the shriveling and rusting of vines, I do not intend 



