Septemier 14, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



195 



As Boon as the Vines have broken, and until the leaves turn 

 yellow, in a span honse 40 feet by 20, and 12 feet to the ridge, 

 I place near the centre an earthen glazed vessel holding about 

 four or five gallons ; in this I put about one gallon of night soil, 

 and fill up three-quarters of the way with stale urine, the staler 

 the better — slops as brought from the bedrooms will do. The 

 whole is stirred up for a few minutes every afternoon when the 

 house is closed. This not only prevents the spider, but adds 

 greatly to the well-doing of the Vines ; indeed it would be 

 useful to plants in general. In the daytime upon entering the 

 house nothing could be detected. — E. M. W., Fir View, Walkley, 

 Sheffield. 



P.S. — I send for your inspection some shoots of Vines show- 

 ing miniature bunches of fruit. I must tell you the Vines they 

 have been taken from have been stopped three and four times 

 during the season ; at each break they have produced shoots 

 like that which I send. The Vines are loaded with fine Grapes. 

 Canes from 2J and 2J inches in girth, and upwards of 20 feet 

 long, this season's produce, will be the bearing rods next year. 

 The leaves, I think, speak for themselves.— [They were large 

 and most healthy. — Eds.] 



I think it possible that black Lady Downe's and West's St. 

 Peter's might have produced a second crop of bunches — i.e., 

 one lot of Grapes on last year's cane, and another lot of smaller 

 bunches on the green wood of this year, if the breaks of the 

 first stopping had becB cherished, but I do not like to overtask 

 a willing horse. 



PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS CULTURE. 



OooisiOHALLT ouB mocts with an old favourite plant grown 

 according to the requirements of the present time — that is, in 

 a small, easily portable form, and yet decorative in the highest 

 degree, so that one is induced to ask. Why let such a plant 

 fall into the background, where it is forsaken and forgotten by 

 most cultivators ? I do not scruple to say, much as it is neces- 

 sary for gardeners to keep pace with the times, and grow only 

 those newly-introdnced subjects which are suddenly and many 

 times too highly extolled, and which, perhaps, fall into disuse 

 as suddenly as they eaine in, through being worthless — that it 

 is a mistake, and a very incredible one too, not to grow the 

 above-named plant, and other old ones, in preference to many 

 new introductions, which are said to, bat do not, possess suffi- 

 cient merit. I do not despise all newly-introduced plants, for 

 the work of collecting and raising src'i is so progressive that it 

 should be practised and encouraged ; but those who possess 

 the power of selection generally grow some of the most beauti- 

 ful of our old plants. 



When paying a visit to Chiswick two or three weeks ago, I 

 had the pleasure to congratulate the superintendent, Mr. Barron, 

 on his success in flowering the Plumbago capensis so abund- 

 antly in 32-8ized pots. I think none of the plants exceeded 

 18 inches in height ; they were as much or more than that in 

 diameter, and wil h as many trusses of their lively blue blossom ; 

 they were perfect pictures, and admired by all present. I 

 heard a gentleman ask another, What newly-introduced plant 

 was there of that colour which could even approach these in 

 decorative qualities ? I for one came away with the intention 

 of trying my hand at growing plants of this Plumbago in a 

 similar way, and I hope others will do the same. It is easy 

 . enough to grow the plant, but flowering it is more difficult, and 

 it reqaires some judgment to do so and at the same time have 

 the plant in a compact form. Larger plants are equally de- 

 sirable when there is room to grow them, and cannot fail to 

 excite admiration. I think about three years ago at this 

 season, when paying a visit to the gardens at Egerton House, 

 then managed by my friend, Mr. E. Luckhurst, I saw in the 

 greenhouse a large plant which to the best of my recollection 

 was nearly 4 feet through, and not more than 3 feet high, well 

 grown, and abundantly flowered, and I think I never saw a 

 more beautiful plant. Now, as we are not in the habit of meet- 

 ing with this plant in such a presentable and useful form as 

 Mr. Barron and Mr. Luckhurst had it, perhaps they will be 

 kind enough to favour the readers of this Journal with the 

 mode of treatment they adopt to grow the Plumbago so success- 

 fully, and not one of them will be more thankful than— Thomas 

 Re COKE. 



performance at Drnry Lane Theatre that he gave orders for a 

 hundred dozen bunches of Grapes to be cut off from the Hamp- 

 ton Court Vine, if so many could be found upon it, and sent 

 to the actors. The gardener executed his commission, and 

 informed his royal master that he could still out ofi as many 

 more without stripping the tree. — [Food Journal.) 



TEA ROSES. 



I CAN confirm all the good things said by " Stiff-soil " of 

 Tea Roses. The following have been almost continuously 

 covered with bloom, and perfectly healthy out of doors with 

 me, from the middle of June to the present time : — Monsieur 

 Furtado, Madame Margottin, Souvenir d'un Ami, Safrano, 

 Madame WlUermoz, Alba rosea, Adrienne Ghristophle, Mon- 

 plaisir, Vicomtesse de Cazes, and Canary. The first is the most 

 vigorous grower, but not the most satisfactory bloomer ; it has 

 proved a bad opener with me. Nothing can be more satis- 

 factory than the graceful habit of Safrano and Vicomtesse de 

 Cazes. They have sent up rich-looking shoots from 12 to 

 18 inches high, and these formed heads of bloom with from 

 eight to twelve sound Eoses delicately drooping in a circle 

 around these stems. Supported against a trellis in a south 

 border they get the warmth and circulation of air, which, aa 

 Mr. Paul points out, they certainly need. 



I should be glad if some one would give a list of twelve other 

 Tea Roses, which from experience have been found suitable for 

 out-door culture, to contain as many rose-coloured and kindred 

 tints as possible, as my present little stock famishes sufficient 

 of the yellow and white class. Adrienne Christophle, however, 

 one can hardly have too much of ; it is difficult to define its 

 colour — apricot, copper rose, peach, salmon all subtly mix with 

 peculiar beauty, and it ought never to be left out of a group. 

 What a tantalising picture Mr. Paul has drawn of in-door 

 culture ! — Coknubia. 



English Grapes. — Our own country is noted for producing 

 some of the finest Grapes in the world, and the fame of the 

 giant Vines at Hampton Court and CamberlandLodge, Windsor, 

 is great. On one occasion George III. was so pleased with a 



AGRICULTURE— PAST AND PRESENT. 



Mr. Cuthbert W. Johnson, in the Mark Lane Express, gives 

 the following comparative view of the state of farming in 

 England in the year 1870 and of five centuries previously : — 

 In the fourteenth century (to give only one or two instances) 

 the average produce of Wheat per acre in England could not 

 have been more than ten or twelve bushels. In his history of 

 the Saffolk parish of Hawstead, Sir John Galium has given the 

 report of its manor farm in the year 1387, from which we learn 

 that the yield of grain from 



66 acres of Wheat was then 69 qrs. 2 bushels. 



26 ,, Barley „ 52 qrs. 2 bushels. 



62 ,, Oats ,, 40 qrs. 4 bushels. 



25 ,, Peas ,, 25 qrs. 3 bushels. 



The farm of Hawstead contained 572 acres ; of these 321 were 

 in tillage, 30 were meadow, and the remainder wood and pasture. 

 The live stock consisted of twenty-six cows and a bull, six 

 heifers and six calves, ten working oxen, four cart horses and 

 six colts, ninely-two muttons, and six score of hoggerills, or 

 two-year-old sheep. The cows were fed during the winter upon 

 rack-meat, all the hay was devoted to their support. The other 

 stock were kept alive upon the straw and haulm, or on the 

 pastures. The result of this wretched feeding was the pro- 

 duction of a very poor stock of farmyard manure. Roots 

 were then unknown as winter food ; to oilcake the same re- 

 mark applies. As winter approached the farmer of those days 

 began to kill off his live stock. At Martinmas he killed his 

 oxen to supply him with his winter's beef. Tasser, who wrote 

 more than two centuries after the time of the Hawstead report, 

 says in his November husbandry ; — 



" (For Easter) at Martinmaa hang np a beef, 

 For stall-fed and pease-fed play Pick-purse the thief ; 

 With that and the like, ere grass-fed come in, 

 Thy folk shall look cheerly when others look thin." 



It may appear strange that at the period to which I am refer- 

 ring root crops were unknown, at least as a field crop, for, as I 

 have on a recent occasion remarked, it is very natural for us to 

 suppose that our root crops were always field crops, but, in fact, 

 they were long cultivated in our gardens before "they were 

 grown by the agriculturist. It was not till about a.d. 1500 that 

 tV3n gardening was introduced into England — when Catherine 

 of Arragon required a salad we find that it was supplied from 

 Holland ; Cabbages came to us in 1510, Hops in 1524, Potatoes 

 in 1563. Turnips were grown only in gardens till about the 

 year 1669. In that year Worlidge, in his " Mystery of Hns- 



