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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 11, 1878. 
country in the southern, eastern, and midland counties. How 
far north they will generally ripen under glass, but without 
the aid of fire heat, I am unable to state, but I know I have 
gathered Grapes from open (south) walls as far north as the 
south of Yorkshire, and have cut fruit from Vines under glass 
where no fire heat was employed, in the same locality, of 
really excellent quality and quite fit for a nobleman’s table. 
There are no doubt thousands of gardens in this country 
where a valuable -npply of home-grown Grapes might be 
produced in »aim expensive glazed structures without the 
expenditure of a penny a year in fuel. Yet while that is the 
fact, it is generally advisable when erecting a vinery for 
making some provision for keeping the frost out of it in 
winter, not for the sake of the Vines, which the frost will not 
then injure, but because the house can be utilised by affording 
protection for tender plants which are usually requisite for 
beautifying gardens in summer. The number of small vine- 
ries is much greater than formerly in the vicinity of towns, 
and it is to be hoped they will continue to increase ; for ripe 
Grapes constitute a wholesome and delicious luxury in health, 
while in sickness they are simply invaluable. Wherever 
Apricots and Peaches will ripen on the walls in the same 
district Grapes will ripen under glass without the aid of fire 
heat.—NortH LINCOLN. 
FUCHSIAS FOR AMATEURS—SOIL FOR POTTING. 
No. 1. 
FUCHSIAS are amateurs’ plants. They are at home on the 
window sill, in the garden, in the living room, and in the 
greenhouse. ‘Their fresh foliage is neat, and their flowers are 
characterised by extreme elegance. “I am forming a collec- 
tion,” writes an amateur, ‘“‘and should be glad, as I doubt not 
would many other amateurs, to see some instructions in the 
Journal for growing the plants well.” It would be compara- 
tively easy to impart information on the culture of Fuchsias, 
but the correspondent alluded to has coupled his request with 
a statement that renders the matter somewhat difficult. It is 
to the effect that he has no suitable soil—no turfy loam, leaf 
soil, or anything of that kind that is so frequently recom- 
mended. 
As to the matter of soil, it may be as well to state at the 
outset that the best, most satisfactory, and in the end the most 
economical plan to adopt is to purchase a bushel or what may 
‘be required of some local nurseryman. If a fancier purchases 
poultry or pigeons, birds, cats, or dogs, he purchases also food 
for their sustenance. If the pets are worth haying the food is 
worth purchasing. Does not the same rule apply in the case 
of Fuchsias and other plants? Those who consider the matter 
well will, I think, reply in the affirmative. 
In country districts no real difficulty need occur in the 
matter of soil, for those who really value softwooded plants 
and are earnest in their efforts to grow them healthily will 
always manage to obtain sufficient wayside parings and collect 
some leaves, a little horse dung and soot, and these mixed 
together and left in a heap for a year, less or more according 
to circumstances, will form a compost in which such plants as 
Fuchsias, Geraniums, &c., will grow in a highly satisfactory 
manner, other points of culture being correct. But the case 
jis different when would-be cultivators of flowers are dwellers 
~in towns or cities or their immediate suburbs. There there are 
_no roadside parings, and possibiy no leaves or waste manure 
~of any kind ; and in that case they must treat their plants as 
they would their pet birds, and purchase for them the requisite 
“food. Plants, however, it may be as well to remember, do not 
require freshly purchased food every day or week, or even 
month, so that the matter of purchasing soil is not so serious 
as at first sight it might appear to be. 
Amateurs and suburban residents, it may perhaps be oppor- 
tune to state, are not the only persons who endure great inconye- 
nience, and even incur considerable loss, by the non-purchasing 
of suitable soil for their plants. Gentlemen—country gentle- 
men—can have little idea of the importance of affording their 
gardeners soil suited to the special requirements of particular 
kinds of plants, or they would be as ready to permit a little 
soil being purchased as they are to purchase the plants. For 
the sake of a pound expended in soil many a £5 note has been 
lost by the premature death of plants, which have perished by 
the want of a suitable medium in which to sustain them in 
health. This-applies to such plants as Camellias, Azaleas, 
Heaths, and New Holland plants, or plants generally which 
require sound peat or pure‘light turfy loam destitute of lime 
to preserve them in a satisfactory and improving condition ; 
yet in heavy clay or limestone districts soil of the nature 
required for such plants cannot be found. Asa matter of fact 
I have traversed hundreds of acres in a vain search for a load 
of soil that I knew was essential to the well-being of the plants 
that had been purchased and for which it was required. The 
cost of the time so wasted was often greater than would the 
cost of suitable soil have been if it had becn purchased. I 
mention this with the twofold object of iuforming suburban 
amateurs that they have “brethren in di.tress’’ amongst pro- 
fessional gardeners in country districts, and also of intimating 
to country gentlemen who will purchase plants, but who are 
averse to buying soil, that they ought not to expect their 
gardeners to make bricks without straw. 
Hitherto I have paid much more attention to the second 
division of my text than the first ; but I have good reason for 
it. The friends at head quarters—for friends they are both to 
amateurs and gardeners—like experienced cultivators, invited 
me, when they forwarded to me the amateur’s letter, to lay 
special stress on the question of soil, knowing it was the more 
important guestion of the two. And so it is. That is the 
reason that I have given it prominence. 
Yet on the other hand I must say, as a somewhat old culti- 
yator, that soil isnot everything in the culture of either Fuchsias 
or any other plants. Much, of course, depends on the nature 
of the compost, its texture and components; but of not less 
importance is the state in which it is used and the manner of 
using it. Ido not hesitate saying that a good gardener and 
skilled cultivator will achieve greater results with inferior soil 
than will a bad cultivator with soil of the most perfect cha- 
racter imaginable for the purpose for which it is intended. 
In the first place, soil when it is employed must not be so 
dry as to crumble when grasped tightly, nor yet be so moist 
as to adhere to the hand after the manner of putty or paste. 
The mean between these two extremes is not only the best 
standard to attain, but it is imperative that it be adopted. Im 
the next place the soil must be kept in a sweet yet healthily 
moist state, and this must be effected by judicious applications 
of water coupled with efficient drainage. It is very easy to 
place an inch or two of crocks, suchas broken pots or charcoal, 
into the bottom of a flower pot, and then as easy to throw in 
soil on the crocks ; but that is Just what ought not to be done. 
The drainage must be kept clean and clear by being covered 
with a layer of turf, moss, manure, or leaves before the soil is 
placed in the pots. That, too, is imperative. It is not, how- 
ever, always adopted by amateurs, nor even by some who call 
themselves gardeners. Another point wherein many amateurs 
err, and not a few gardeners, is in the habit of watering plants 
immediately after they have been potted. As soon as a plant 
has been placed in fresh soil and in a fresh pot it is considered 
proper to “give it a good soaking.’ Instead of that practice 
being proper it is very improper. A plant should never be 
potted when the old soil in which it is growing is at all dry, nor 
when the new soil in which it is proposed to place it is similarly 
devcid of moisture, neither should it ever be watered imme- 
diately after the potting has been done. 
Those are a few of the principles of culture that must never 
be lost sight of in the cultivation of Fuchsias, or indeed of 
any plants. but I have written enough for one paper and 
will resume the subject on a future occasion —A NORTHERN 
GARDENER. 
THE ScorTisH HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.—The monthly 
meeting of the Scottish Horticultural Association was held on 
Tuesday, the 2nd inst. at 5, St. Andrew Square. Mr. Dunn, 
Dalkeith Palace Gardens, President, in the chair. Mr. A. D. 
Mackenzie read a valuable paper on the “Heating of Horti- 
cultural Buildings.” He alluded to the various methods which 
had been tried for heating such buildings, but the only two 
effective methods were by flues or by the circulation of hot water 
in pipes. The old fines had been almost entirely superseded, the 
cost of repairing, their expense, and other disadvantages having 
contributed to this result. But the system of heating by hot- 
water pipes had spread to such an extent that it now formed an 
important item in the industry of the country. He described two 
methods of heating by water—the one by high pressure with 
small malleable iron pipes, and the other by low pressure with 
cast-iron pipes and boilers. Mr. Mackenzie then gave his expe- 
rience of the various boilers which were used, giving preference 
to the saddle boiler, and closed with a few hints in reference to 
the working of the whole system. All the members who took 
part in the discussion agreed that the saddle boiler was the best 
in use. Mr. James Grieve read a paper on “Campanulas,” in 
which he enumerated the different kinds and the places from 
