204 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 7, 1876. 



old one, but apparently in robuBt health, for it grew vigorously, 

 producing long-jointed wood, large leaves, long tendrils, but 

 no fruit. It was pruned on the short-spur system, and every- 

 thing that was possible was done to ripen the wood, but no 

 fruit followed. The long-spur or extension system was then 

 tried, and a few bunches were obtained from the young canes, 

 but by no means a good crop. I then had recourse to the 

 plan of " putting on " the bunches. 



Short- join ted and well-matured wood from fruitful Vines 

 was preserved by burying it an inch deep in the open garden. 

 In the spring when the barren Vine commenced putting forth 

 leaves the dormant yet fresh pieces were dug up and grafted 

 on the old and then freely-growing stock. The grafts were for 

 a time supported with " the bottle " — that is, until their union 

 was complete and they received support from the stock. The 

 grafts were 18 inches long, and from the centre of each a deep 

 slice was cut 6 inches in length, starting at two eyes from the 

 top. Corresponding slices were cut from the parent, some on 

 the old rod and others on the laterals, which had been pur- 

 posely left unpruned, and the cut parts were neatly placed 

 together, and were secured by matting and protected with 

 moss. The lower end of the grafts, which were about 8 inches 

 in length, were inserted in bottles of water — common wine 

 bottles — which were suspended from the roof. These bottles 

 were kept filled with water for a considerable time. In due 

 time the buds swelled and the young growth grew just as 

 freely as if it had been a part of the Vine. Bunches were 

 Been, and each Bhoot from the graft was stopped a leaf or two 

 beyond the bunch. The growth of the " stock " Vine wsb 

 also restricted, and during the same season good bunches of 

 really fine Grapes were ripened on the Vine that had previously 

 been barren for years. 



Another noteworthy fact remains to be told. The short- 

 jointed fruitful wood that was "put on" the Vine producing 

 long-jointed unfruitful canes has in a measure retained its 

 short-jointed and fruitful character, and for three years has 

 produced satisfactory crops of Grapes, yet not quite equal to 

 the crop which was produced during the season of grafting. 



Perhaps the success attending this experiment may be worth 

 recording. The operation is so easy of being performed that 

 no one need hesitate to try it. A sharp knife, a steady hand, 

 and a quick eye being the principal requisites in " effecting a 

 junction," and subsequent attention to stopping the growths — 

 on stock and graft — " keeping the bottles filled," and thinning 

 the fruit will result in Grapes which have been " put on " the 

 same season. Possibly others may have adopted the same 

 plan ; if so, I should be glad to hear if they have been equally 

 successful. 



I only regret that I did not try several varieties on the same 

 Vine, for apart from the interest attached to their so growing, 

 it would have been instructive to have noted what effects, if 

 any, the stock had over the grafts. A vigorous parent is no 

 doubt necessary to insure success. — A Doctor's Gabdeneb. 



IXIAS: A PLEA FOR THEIR CULTURE. 



It has often surprised me that so few people apparently 

 seem to cultivate this very beautiful tribe of bulbs, and it is 

 probably from the notion that there is some great difficulty in 

 the way. This has perhaps been increased by the fact that 

 when persons have been struck with astonishment at the beau- 

 tiful groups of them exhibited by the Messrs. Hooper of Covent 

 Garden, and have asked about them, they have been informed 

 that they were grown in the Channel Islands, and have hence 

 concluded that it is only in such favoured localities that their 

 cultivation can be attempted. This is a mistake, at least as 

 far as frame and pot culture are concerned ; and it is in order 

 to do away with this feeling and to encourage others that I 

 venture to write a few words in favour of Ixias. 



In my own little way I have hitherto attempted their culture 

 only in pots ; but knowing that Mr. Samuel Barlow of Slake- 

 hill House, Chedderton, near Manchester, was a most success- 

 ful grower of them, I asked him for soma information con- 

 cerning them ; and as his method differs but little from my 

 own, except in the larger quantities in which he grows them, 

 I give the notes with which he was kind enough to furnish me. 

 " I grow my Ixias in a mixture of good turfy soils and one- 

 fourth well-decayed cow dung. I also add a little rough sand 

 and a sprinkling of finely powdered clay and marl containing 

 plenty of lime, about one-tenth of each of these two, and all 

 well mixed together. I grow them in large 15-inch pans 

 9 inches deep, and about eighty bulbs in each, and keep them 



in a cool house or frame. The soil must be rich and fibrous, 

 not too light. When the spikes begin to show for bloom I 

 give weak liquid manure about every third or fourth day. I 

 may say that if protected from frost they will bloom well out 

 of doors." 



I have not been able as yet to grow them in such quantities, 

 but find that about half a dozen bulbs in a large 48 -pot answer 

 very well, and their elegant and graceful habit, together with 

 their brilliancy and quaintness of bloom, makes them very 

 effective objects ; while all who are desirous of having pretty 

 flowers for cut blooms cannot very well dispense with them. 

 For light vases or the top of a March dinner-table stand they 

 are most valuable. 



With regard to sorts, I do not think there are many more 

 than two dozen varieties. One never sees much more than 

 that number in a catalogue ; and although there are different 

 names in the various lists, yet I am inclined to think this 

 rather arises from the growers in Holland who supply the 

 English dealers having them under different names. I add 

 those which I have found effective and UBeful : — Viridiflora, a 

 most quaint light-green-coloured flower with dark centre ; long 

 spike. Aspasia, white, purplish stripes ; maroon centre. Cra- 

 terioides, bright scarlet. Golden Drop, yellow ; dark eye. 

 Pallas, cream ; back of petals striped lilac. Grand Duke, straw 

 colour. Hector, large purple. Virgilius, bright lemon ; large, 

 dark centre. 



I have also grown in the same method the kindred bulbs of 

 Sparaxis and Babianas, but I very much prefer the Ixias to 

 them as being more light and graceful. — D., Deal. 



TREE PLANTING. 



" Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye 

 sticking in a tree ; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleep- 

 ing." When Sir Walter Scott put these words into the mouth 

 of Dumbiedikes he made the old laird give advice of the ut- 

 most value to thousands as well as to " Jock." I am only 

 afraid that in following it but too many have shown by their 

 practice a too literal application of the " sticking-in " part. 

 By all means plant, but let it be well done or not at all. " Well 

 done " in the Bense in which the words are now used is a most 

 comprehensive term. It means putting the right tree in the 

 right place ; right for the future as well as the present ; right 

 as to soil and climate and aa to the influence which it will 

 exercise upon surrounding objects, be they other trees in the 

 depth of a forest or the features of an open landscape ; and, 

 above all, right as to the preparation of the soil and the manner 

 in which the roots are placed in it — all matters of the utmost 

 moment, and to which due weight must be given in order to 

 obtain successful results. 



Take the Larch as an example of this. No doubt, as " A 

 Foeesteb" says, in his very sensible and practical remarks on 

 this subject in page 160, "the liberal planting of Larches is 

 profitable," but then it must be well done in every sense or a 

 most pitiful failure will ensue. I have frequently seen Larch 

 planted among underwood of one year's growth from the fall 

 or time when the whole wood was cut, planted and left to take 

 its chance till the next fall, a period of eight or ten years, when 

 the underwood is cut clean away, leaving the Larch with their 

 thin, bare, weakly stems exposed to the risk of being blown 

 over by the next storm, which very often happens if the Larch 

 clump be not a large one. It is clear, therefore, that if Larch 

 is planted for timber among underwood it must have a certain 

 space kept clear around it to admit of a stout robust growth ; 

 it will then soon beat the underwood, and by the time of the 

 next fall be so sturdy as to withstand the roughest storms. 



My object, however, is not so much to call attention to the 

 management of the Larch as a timber tree, valuable though it 

 undoubtedly is in that form, but rather to show how profitable 

 it is, and how superior to many other trees upon a poor soil. 

 The soil here is poor, thin, and light, and about a hundred 

 acres of it is covered by a wood consisting principally of Oak 

 and Beech irregularly dispersed a long distance apart, with an 

 undergrowth of Oak, Beech, Hazel, Ash, and Chestnut, sub- 

 jected to a periodical cutting for hop-poles, faggots, etc., every 

 eight or ten years. Some of the strongest poles will in that 

 time reach a height of 18 to 20 feet, hut the majority will be 

 not much more than half that height. Now, having heard 

 from a reliable source that plantations of Larch had proved 

 four or five times more profitable than the kinds of trees 

 growing here, and that too in a similar soil, I was glad to 

 find an opportunity of testing the matter, and the conclusion 



