January 26, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUER AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



Gl 







. WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



Day 





Average Tempera- 



Rain in 



Sun 



Sun 



Moon 



Moon 



Moon's 



Clock 



before 



Sun. 



Day 



o( 



Year. 



Month 



Week. 



JAN. 25— FEB. 1, 1871. 



ture near London. 



43 years. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Age, 









Day. 



NiRht. 



Mean. 



Days. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



m. h. 



Days. 



m. 8. 





26 



Th 



Meeting of Boyal Society, 8.30 p.m. 



45.5 



82.8 



38.9 



20 



60af7 



86af4 



35 a 10 



6afll 



5 



12 47 



26 



27 



P 





44.6 



81.3 



87.9 



20 



49 7 



38 4 



52 10 



morn. 



6 



12 59 



27 



28 



S Lenqth of night 15h. Bm. 



46.8 



80.8 



38.3 



21 



48 7 



40 4 



10 11 



13 



5 



IS 11 



28 



29 



Sun 4 Sijnday after EpipnAKT. 



45.6 



81.5 



S8.5 



18 



48 7 



42 4 



31 11 



20 1 



8 



IS 22 



29 



SO 



M 





44.7 



82.2 



38.5 



22 



45 7 



44 4 



63 11 



23 2 



9 



13 82 



80 



SI 



To 



Hilarv Term ends. 



44.9 



30.9 



37.9 



20 



43 7 



46 4 



after. 



81 8 



10 



13 41 



31 



1 



W 



Meeting of Society of Arts, 8 p.m. 



44.4 



82.0 



88.2 



14 



41 7 



48 4 



56 



34 4 



11 



13 50 



32 



From observations taken near London durinR forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 45. P, and its night tempera- 



ture S1.5°. The greatest heat was 57°, on the 29th, 1803 ; and tha lowest cold 8°, on the 30th, 1867. The greatest fall of ram was 0.70 mch. 



A NEW METHOD OF GROWING YOUNG 



VINES. 



HAVE for some time felt that our in-esent 

 method of preparing young Vines, especially 

 for planting, is far from satisfactory, and 

 that its imperfection is one of the causes that 

 lead to the sudden decline in fruitfulness so 

 often complained of in the case of the Vine. 

 This being so, and having had to prepare 

 about a thousand Vines for my own planting 

 last spring, I adopted what is, as far as known 

 to me, an entirely new method of growing 

 them ; this I will explain in as few words as possible, and 

 those who wish further details will find them in the seventh 

 edition of my little book on the Vine ; these, for gardeners 

 at least, will be unnecessary, and amateurs seldom raise 

 Vines from eyes. 



My objections to the usual system I had better state 

 to begin with. The first is the rich soil used for growing 

 the Vines. This gives rise to strong soft roots few in 

 number, and which generally perish during the winter. 

 The second is the coiling of the roots, first round the small 

 pot, in which the eye is started, before it is shifted into a 

 larger pot ; then the same process continued in the larger 

 pot : and lastly, when the Vine has to be turned out of the 

 pot for planting, the extreme difficulty of distentangling 

 the roots, in which process all the spongioles and small 

 roots are destroyed, leaving a few long bare roots which 

 have to be spread out in the border, reaching a long way 

 across it, and from the points of which the newly-formed 

 roots start, leaving a great part of the carefully-prepared 

 border behind them. 



To avoid such evils as I consider these are, I proceeded 

 as follows : — On the pavement of what was intended for and 

 is now a Pine stove, under which are hot- water pipes for 

 giving bottom heat, I placed a complete covering of tough 

 fibry turf taken off a sheep-walk ; on this I placed 4 inches 

 of fine fibry maiden loam. In this, at a distance of 6 inches 

 or so from each other, holes an inch deep were made, and 

 tilled with white sand, and in the sand the Vine eyes were 

 placed, and just covered with it. The bottom heat did 

 not exceed 60°. 



_ The Vine eyes started in the usual way, and out of 

 sixteen hundred not six failed to make rapid progress. 

 When they were about 9 inches high, with four or five 

 fully -developed leaves, and their first set of strong quill- 

 like rootf3 beginning to interlace each other, I had each 

 plant cut round with a knife, so that it rested on its own 

 isolated bit of turf, and had the points of its roots cut off. 

 They flagged a little for a few days, but soon began to 

 grow again, and I had each plant raised on a square 

 trowel, and transplanted to a similar bed of turf and fibrous 

 loam, but this time they were placed from 9 to 13 inches 

 apart, according to their strength, filling in all round with 

 loam in which there was no manure of any kind. When 

 raised on the trowel, the edges of the square of soil they were 

 growing in was a mass of fine white needle-like roots 

 springing from the large roots that were cut across. The 



No. 513.— Vol. XX., New Series. 



'il$' 





Vines seemed to suffer no chect^ 

 from their removal, but grew 

 rapidly. 



When the Vines were about 

 3 feet high, and just a week be- 

 fore I meant to plant them in 

 the borders, I had them cut round 

 again, but this time the blocks of 

 loam in which they were grow- 

 ing were from 9 inches to a foot 

 square, and inches deep, and 

 one mass of fine active roots 

 more like those of a Box or 

 Privet bush than of a Vine ; they 

 were moved entire to where they 

 were planted with the greatest 

 facility, not a root being ia- 

 jured. 



The progress the Vines made 

 after being planted in the bor- 

 ders was, in my experience, alto- 

 gether unparalleled. The eyes 

 were put m the soil on the 7th of 

 February last, and I send you 

 samples of the wood cut exactly 

 to a day eleven months from 

 the time the eyes were put in 

 the soil. They were chiefly 

 Muscats, Lady Downe's (black 

 and white), Gros Colman, Ali- 

 cante, and — strongest of all — the 

 Golden Champion. You will note 

 how little pith there is in the 

 wood. 



About seven hundred of such- 

 Vines as I did not require for 

 planting I had potted for either 

 fruiting in pots or planting, and 

 they have been equally success- 

 ful ; therefore I can recommend 

 the system for either purpose. 

 An examination of the border 

 shows that the roots are retain- 

 ing the habit thus forced upon 

 them, and are, so to speak, taking 

 their work before them. — W. 

 Thomsox, Dalheith Park. 



[We received three cuttings 

 from Mr. Thomson, they were of 

 Golden Champion, Lady Downe's, 

 and Gros Colman. No better- 

 ripened, shorter -jointed, smaller- 

 pithed, finer young wood was 

 ever produced on a Vine ; and 

 when it is remembered that no- 

 more tbsn eleven months before 

 the eyes produciug that WOO^ 

 were planted, we believe that 

 such success is without a pa- 

 No. 1165.— Voi„ XL v., Old Series. 



