140 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE QAKDENEK. 



[ Febrnary 23, 1893. 



ing to my opinion. At the winter pinning, taking advantage 

 of my above-mentioned observations, I purposely, and I may 

 add fortunately, left several spurs longer than nana), and also 

 in places laid in some young wood. This year's crop has been 

 as good as usual, but the long spurs and the young laid-in wood 

 have produced it. There has, however, been rather more 

 shanking than usual, but still to no serious amount. One 

 thing is clear — had I pruned the Vines on the usual short-spur 

 system the crop, if it had not been a failure, would have been 

 very far below the usual standard. The strongest and most 

 vigorous Vine in the house, and so pruned, produced scarcely 

 any Grapes at all. 



Another search for roots in the garden beyond the walk, and 



1 found them in plenty at depths of from 1 to 2 feet. Moat of 

 the roots found are healthy and fibrous, some others are not 

 BO. I would particularly observe that the garden ground in 

 which the roots are now ramifying is good to the depth of 



2 feet, then comes a foot of sour hungry loam resting on a bed 

 of soft buttery-looking white marl. 1 now look at the Vine 

 border proper, the 10-feet border. At a foot below the surface 

 I begin to find roots, but as destitute of fibre as any other 

 water pipes, for this is what they amount to. The feeders are 

 in the garden over the walk foraging for supplies to send up by 

 these channels to supply the Vines. The Vines now get little 

 or no sustenance from the 10-feet border. A prime cause of 

 the Vine roots leaving the border may reasonably be attributed 

 to three excessively dry summers driving the roots outwards 

 and downwards in search of the required moistuie which fell 

 in such diminished quantities from the clouds, always remem- 

 bering that they were naturally predisposed to ramble in search 

 of fresh food, having during their growth extracted from the 

 narrow border the particular aliment necessary to their sus- 

 tenance. In the last-mentioned premise, I would incidentally 

 mention, is to be found the reason why young Vines will not 

 grow in old Vine borders. I have as briefly as possible, con- 

 sistently with clearness, noticed the past and present, and now 

 proceed to 



The Future. — To insure good crops of good Grapes in the 

 future, a different system of management must be adopted. 

 As long as the roots were confined in the border and near the 

 surface, the spur system was right. There was something like 

 a balance between root and branch. Now that the roots have 

 taken a wider, almost unlimited range, the reciprocal action of 

 root and branch is destroyed. The canes are 18 feet long. Tbe 

 roots are found 36 feet from the house, and it is quite probable 

 that they extend further than this. The balance lost must be 

 restored, or the Vines one by one will probably follow the ex- 

 ample of the one which is the moat vigorous, and refuse to 

 bear good fruit. There are two ways of restoring the necessary 

 reciprocal action — one by commencing operations on the roots 

 and branches conjointly ; the other by top or branch manage- 

 ment alone. The latter plan is the simpler, being the system 

 of letting a Vine have room to extend itself by cutting away 

 the other Vines as it grows, and so letting it occupy several 

 rafters or a whole house. The branches would soon be on 

 an equality with the roots, and I am sanguine good Grapes 

 would be the result. The drawback to this plan is the buttery- 

 looking white marl subsoil, which suggests the question, Would 

 the roots penetrate into it ? It so, shanking would inevitably 

 ensue. Whether the roots would enter this uncongenial soil is 

 to me problematical. I think they would not, considering they 

 have the range of 2 feet of good soil above it. I, however, 

 hesitate to recommend it on my sole responsibility on account 

 of the important question it involves. The former plan of 

 root-and-branch action conjointly is to remove the soil from 

 the border, entirely laying bare the fibreless roots, and to make 

 them fibrous by covering them with 5 or 6 inches of proper 

 soil, and this again with heating material of manure and leaves 

 to the depth of 2 feet, or sufficient to give a gentle warmth to 

 the fresh soil above the roots. This warm fresh soil would 

 induce the emission of a network of spongioles from the old 

 roots, esaentially of a health-inducing and fruit-producing 

 character. Surface-feeding roots of this nature predispose the 

 top growth to short-jointed fruitful wood, and the spur system 

 of pruning is quite in harmony with the practice. This, with 

 young canes brought up and worked on the spur system, in 

 conjunction with a general system of proper management, 

 never fails to bring good Grapes. I do not say that one cover- 

 ing of heating material would answer the purpose of always 

 keeping the roots near the surface. It might be required in 

 the first instance for two years consecutively, and then, per- 

 haps, every alternate year to keep the Vines in permanent good 



order. The limited number of Vines, and the demand on them, 

 do not permit of experiments involving the risk of a loss, or 

 partial loss of crop. 



The two methods put side by side stand thus — 



1st. Letting the roots alone, and working the top on the long- 

 rod or extending system. This I am certain would answer, ex- 

 cept on account of the white marl subsoil, and, perhaps, m 

 spite of it. 



2ad. Raising the roots by surface heat and working on the 

 short-spur system. This involves more labour and material. 

 It would answer. 



Taking everything into account, which is it to be ? What 

 say the Editors, or their practical correspondents ? — W. 



[Many years ago the modes of pruning Vines were pro- 

 minently referred to, and they have been noticed frequently 

 since. It has been shown that with all the advantages of the 

 short-spur system when the roots were near the surface, long 

 and short rods in succession answered better when, from depth 

 of roots, tbe wood was apt to be stronger, but pithy and long- 

 jointed. The example yon adduce of the vigorous but com- 

 paratively barren Vine is a case in point. If the strong wood 

 from that Vine were well ripened we have no doubt it would 

 be very productive the following season ; but then we should be 

 doubtful if spurring would answer in the succeeding year if 

 the extra vigour showed the roots were deep and in moist soil. 

 We do not place so much importance on the extension of roots- 

 and of branches being reciprocal. We think it very likely that 

 there are more fibres in the original border than supposed, and 

 if not, then the mere length would be of little importance if 

 so much of that length were destitute of feeders. We have no 

 fault to find with the gradually-extending system, so as ulti- 

 mately to have a few Vines, or only one, in a house ; but we have 

 no faith that the mere extension of the stems will alter the 

 character of the Vines, if, as you suspect, the roots, owing to 

 the dry summer, have gone down in search of moisture, as we 

 believe that then, as well as now, the young wood successions 

 would be better than close spurring — that is, supposing you 

 make no other alteration, except merely giving the Vines more 

 headway. 



From the examination of the roots in the garden they do not 

 seem to be too deep there ; but if allowed to get dry they will 

 go down after moisture into the uncongenial soil, and that will 

 be beat prevented by surface-mulching and surface-watering 

 when necessary. You are not likely to have excess of moisture 

 with this marl bottom at 3 feet from the surface, and unless the 

 roots, from want of moisture above, are induced to go into it, 

 we have no doubt you will have good Grapes on the short or 

 long-rod system instead of close spur-pruning. Instead, there- 

 fore, of adopting one of the plans you propose as first and 

 second, we should be inclined to adopt both. We would first 

 allow the roots in the garden to remain as they are, and en- 

 courage them to keep near the surface by mulching and water- 

 ing when necessary ; and secondly, we would carefully remove 

 the soil on the old border down to, but not so as to hurt, the 

 roots, cover with a few inches of gritty fresh soil, and then add 

 a little loam, with a slight hotbed over it as yon propose.] 



SEEDLING PIXE APPLES. 

 I BELIEVE there are not many gardeners who have had much 

 experience in raising and cultivating seedling Pine Apples. 

 It is a subject seldom spoken of or commented upon in the 

 horticultural press. It so happens that I have thirty-four dis- 

 tinct varieties of seedlings under my care at the present time. 

 In many instances their characters are very distinct from eack 

 other, and easily detected at first sight by cultivators of the 

 Pine Apple. One of them is likely to become the tallest and 

 most robust in cultivation, while at the same time it forms 

 a plant of handsome proportions, its leaves being as straight 

 as an arrow and covered with an unusually dense and light- 

 coloured bloom, tbe spines being wider apart than in any other 

 variety with which I am acquainted. This plant has been 

 grown under great disadvantages, as I was never able to keep 

 the bed in which it was plunged at a temperature of more than 

 60°, in consequence of the hot-water pipes settling down late 

 in the autumn, and, owing to circumstances, they could not 

 be raised to tbe proper level till tbe following spring. The 

 sucker from which the plant was grown was weak, having been 

 taken from a sickly plant which had to be stripped of every 

 leaf, and scrubbed and otherwise cleansed to get rid of scale. 

 The small sucker made its appearance from this roughly-handled. 



