THE CULTURE OF THE GKAPE. 257 



Decembei' 4th, I noticed a communication from a Mr. 

 Kobert Elliott, headed, ' Questions for Yiue Growers,' 

 and, as I am evidently the person he alludes to, I beg 

 to offer a few remarks on his visit to Ilaby, if he, indeed, 

 visited Kaby at all ; for the whole of my men disclaim 

 all knowledge of ever having shown this Mr. Elliott 

 through the place in my absence. From the remarks 

 he makes respecting the vines here, I assure j'onr readers 

 that I should not have troubled myself to refute him, had 

 I not had a work before the public, from the following 

 of which, to the letter, I have had unerring success ; and, 

 if I cannot convince your i-eaders that the greater part 

 of Mr. Elliott's letter is a tissue of falsehoods, I will 

 suffer my treatise to fall as my contemporary's brick 

 pillars have- done." 



lu reference to the vines in the old houses looking well, 

 and having good crops, as stated by Mr. Elliott, Mr. 

 Roberts says, that it is owing to the disbudding and top- 

 dressing the border with carrion, &c., and, wherever 

 practicable, applying heat to the roots. He then goes on 

 as follows : — 



" ' Proceeding onward, however,' Mr. E. remarks, ' to 

 some newly erected houses, in which the vines had been 

 planted last February, I found the shoots all dead for 

 eight and ten inches back, and some even more ; and, for 

 the cause of this calamity, I could not obtain a satisfactory 

 explanation, the blame being laid upon the sheet glass 

 with which the houses were glazed.' 



" Now, in this range, during February and March, 

 there were planted, inside and outside, upwards of one 

 hundred and thirty vines, chiefly small plants, and through 



