August 24, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICaLTUEB AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



143 



indigo, and violet, and had discovered that these elementary 

 rays had different indices of retraction ; that for the red ray at 

 one side of the solar spectrum being the least, while that of the 

 violet at the opposite side thereof was the greatest, from which 

 lie deduced his celebrated doctrine of the different refrangibility 

 of the rays of light ; and further, that Sir John Hersohel, in 

 his sabsequent investigation of the properties of light, had 

 shown that the chemical power of the solar ray is greatest in 

 the blue rays, which give the least light of any of the luminous 

 prismatic radiations, but the largest quantity of solar heat, and 

 that later espetiments established the fact of the stimulating 

 influence of the blue rays upon vegetation. Having concluded 

 to make a practical application of the properties of the blue 

 and violet rays of light jast referred to in stimulating vegetable 

 life, I began to inquire in every accessible direction if this 

 stimulating quality of the blue or violet ray had ever received 

 any practical useful application. My inquiries developed the 

 facts that various experiments had been made in England and 

 on the European continent, with glass coloured with each of 

 the several primary rays, but that they were so unsatisfactory 

 in their results, that nothing useful came of them so fir as any 

 improvement in the process of developing vegetation was con- 

 cerned. Finding no beaten track, I was left to grope my way 

 33 best I could under the guidance of the violet ray alone. 



My grapery was finished in March, 1S61. Its dimensions 

 were 84 feet long, 26 feet wide, 16 feet high at the ridge, with 

 a double pitched roof. It was built at the foot of a terraced 

 garden, in the direction of N.E. to E. to S W. by W. On three 

 sides there was a border 12 feet wide, and on the fourth or 

 N.E. by E. side the border was only 5 feet wide, being a walk 

 of the garden. The borders inside and outside were excavated 

 3 feet 6 inches deep, and were filled up with the usual nutritive 

 matter, carefully prepared for growing Vines. I do not think 

 they differed essentially from thousands of other borders which 

 have been made in many parts of the world. The first question 

 to be solved on the completion of the frame of the grapery, 

 was the proportion of blue or violet glass to be used on the 

 loof. Should too much be used, it would reduce the tempera- 

 ture too much, and caus.e a failure of the experiment ; if too 

 little it would not afford a fair test. At a venture I adopted 

 «very eighth row of glass on the roof to be violet-coloured, 

 alternating the rows on opposite sides of the roof, so that the 

 sun in its daily course should cast a beam of violet light on 

 every leaf in the grapery. Cuttings of Vices of some twenty 

 varieties of Grapes, each one year old, of the thickness of a 

 pipe-stem, and cut close to the pots containing them, were 

 planted in the borders inside and outside of the grapery, in the 

 «arly part of April, 1361. Soon after being planted, the growth 

 of the Vines began. Those on the- outside were trained through 

 earthen pipes in the wall to the inside, and as they grew they 

 were tied up to the wires like those which had been planted 

 within. Very soon the Vines began to attract great notice of 

 all who saw them from the rapid growth they were making. 

 Bvery day disclosed some new extension, and the gardener was 

 kept busy in tying up the new wood which the day before he 

 had not observed. In a few weeks after the Vines had been 

 planted, the walls and inside of the roof were closely covered 

 with the most luxuriant and healthy development of foliage 

 ■and wood. 



In the early part of September, 1861, Mr. Eobert Buist, a 

 noted seedsman and distinguished horticulturist, from whom 

 i had procured the Vines, having beard of their wonderful 

 -growth, visited the grapery. On entering it he seemed to be 

 lost in amazement at what he saw ; after examining it very 

 carefully, turning to me, he said : " General, I have been culti- 

 vating plants and Vines of various kinds for the last forty 

 years ; I have seen some of the best vineries and conservatories 

 inEngland and Scotland ; but I have never seen anything like 

 this growth." He then measured some of the Vines and found 

 them 45 feet in length, and an inch in diameter at a distance 

 of 1 foot above the ground; and these dimensions were the 

 growth of only five months ! He then remarked : " I visited 

 last week a new grapery near Darby, the Vines in which I fur- 

 nished at the same time I did yours ; they were of the same 

 varieties, of like age and size when they were planted as yours ; 

 they were planted at the same time with yours. When I saw 

 them last week they were puny, spindling plants, not more 

 than 5 feet long, and scarcely increased in diameter since they 

 were planted, and yet they have had the best possible care and 

 attendance !" 



The Vines continued healthy and to grow, making an abund- 

 ance of young wood during the remainder of the season of 1861. 



In March of 1862 they were started to grow, having been 

 pruned and cleaned in January of that year. The growth in 

 the second season was, if anything, more remarkable than it 

 had been in the previous year. Besides the formation of new 

 wood and the display of the most luxuriant foliage, there waa 

 a wonderful number of bunches of Grapes, which soon assumed 

 the most remarkable proportions — the bunches being of extra- 

 ordinary magnitude, and the Grapes of unusual size and deve- 

 lopment. 



In September of 1862 the same gentleman, Mr. Eobert H. 

 Baist, sen., who had visited the grapery the year before, came 

 again — this time accompanied by his foreman. The Grapes 

 were then beginning to colour and to ripen rapidly. On enter- 

 ing the grapery, astonished at the wonderful display of foliage 

 and fruit which it presented, he stood for a while in silent 

 amazement ; he then slowly walked around the grapery several 

 times, critically examining its wonders; when, taking from his 

 pocket paper and pencil, he noted on the paper each bunch of 

 Grapes, and estimated its weight, after which aggregating the 

 whole, he came to me and said, " General, do you know that 

 you have 1200 lbs. of Grapes in this grapery ?" On my 

 saying that I had no idea of the quantity it contained, he con- 

 tinued, " You have indeed that weight of fruit, but I would not 

 dare to publish it, for no one would believe me." We may 

 well conceive of his astonishment at this product when we are 

 reminded that in Grape-growing countries where Grapes have 

 been grown for centuries, that a period of time of from five to 

 six years will elapse before a single bunch of Grapes can be 

 produced from a young Vine — while before him, in the second 

 year of the growth of Vines, which he himself had furnished 

 only seventeen months before, he saw this remarkable yield of 

 the finest and choicest varieties of Grapes. He might well say 

 that an account of it would be incredible. 



Daring t}je next season {1863) the Vines again fruited and 

 matured a crop of Grapes estimated by comparison with the yield 

 of the previous year to weigh about two tons ; the Vines were 

 perfectly healthy and fi'ee from the usual maladies which affect 

 the Grape. By this time the grapery and its products had 

 become partially known among cultivators, who said that such 

 excessive crops would exhaust the Vines, and that the follow- 

 ing year there would be no fruit, as it was well known that all 

 fruits required rest after yielding large crops ; notwithstanding, 

 new wood was formed this year for the next year's crop, which 

 turned out to be quite as large as it had been in the season of 

 1S63, and so on year by year the Vines have continued to bear 

 large crops of fine fruit without intermission for the last nine 

 years. They are now healthy and strong, and as yet show no 

 signs of decrepitude or exhaustion. — {American Gariener's 

 Monthly.) 



SOME PEEDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GARDENS.— No. 16. 



Eeally it would be asking almost too much of human nature 

 to expect anyone to answer this question affirmatively : " WiU 

 you do a good turn to a Bluebottle-fly ? " It is very easy, of 

 course, to theorise about the utility of this and that species of 

 Musca, considered as scavengers, or on the place which each 

 living organism holds in Nature's system, wherein, despite of 

 what may seem to us its unpleasant peculiarities, we admit 

 that it forms a link which could not be dropped out without 

 interfering with the whole. Bat one of the points in the 

 character of the Bluebottle which offends us most of all is the 

 determination it shows to wander everywhere in and out of 

 doors, and apparently for the express purpose of inflicting 

 annoyance upon the huge biped man, against whom, were you 

 putting him into the scale, yon would have to heap many thou- 

 sands of Blow-flies to serve as counterpoise, yet, strange to say, 

 when the two come into collision, the Bluebottle keeps his 

 temper, and the man does not. Eeally, you feel inclined to 

 pardon the insect offender who attacks you or your property in 

 a systematic way. The caterpillar which devours your Cab- 

 bages and Lettuces, as a rule, does not touch anything else ; 

 nay, even the aphis, common as it is on a variety of plants, 

 shrubs, and trees, does not enter your house, except by acci- 

 dent, and is then glad enough to escape again with life. 



Bat the Bluebottle, what is he ? A predatory insect of the 

 garden ? Yes. Of the conservatory and hothouse ? Yes. And 

 more than this, he visits also our houses, not one room only, 

 but every room to which he can gain admission. He is here, 

 there, and everywhere, and not satisfied with plaguing you by 

 haunting you in your moments of relaxation, and vexing your 



