261 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 2, 1885. 
all the old soil and prune the roots somewhat, afterwards 
placing them in pots of a size only large enough to afford 
them support for a few weeks. Whatever may be said to the 
contrary, there can be no question as to the wisdom of this 
method as compared with that sometimes recommended, and 
which is to repot the plants during their rest and not before 
growth has recommenced. A little consideration of one of 
the simplest laws of plant physiology is sufficient to condemn 
the latter practice. (It must be borne in mind that we are 
now discussing plants cultivated in pots, which afford con¬ 
ditions very different from those to which plants growing 
naturally are exposed.) 
The firmness of the soil is another point of some import¬ 
ance to the cultivator of plants in pots. Some growers, 
successful ones too, pot the softest wooded and quickest 
growing plants much firmer than many would advise. Some 
of the best Pelargoniums I have ever seen were grown in a stiff 
loam pressed down as hard as a brick. These plants were 
in rather small pots, but it was a revelation to one who had 
been taught to pot hardwooded plants very firmly and soft- 
wooded plants loosely. A prize Mignonette grower used to 
say his success was due to hard potting and bones, and his 
plants were in soil as hard almost as stone. They were 
bush and standard Mignonettes, such as we seldom see now. 
In this matter, however, much depends on the quality of the 
soil and the aim of the cultivator ; still, the following general 
rules may be pointed to—viz., all fine-rooted plants may be 
potted firmly (always excepting annuals), very fine-rooted 
plants with hard wood requiring the soil to be rammed hard. 
The harder the soil is pressed about the roots the more sand or 
its equivalent should be mixed with the soil. For the pro¬ 
duction of flowers firm potting is an important factor; for 
foliage and quick growth loose potting is best. 
In conclusion, a word of warning may be uttered against 
filling the pots too full of soil, so that insufficient room is 
left for watering. The more soil a pot contains the more 
water will be required to thoroughly moisten it when dry. 
This seems plain enough, but, as was said by one of those 
who took part in the discussion above referred to, “ All these 
simple matters are plain enough, but many gardeners fail to 
see the importance of observing them. We all know how 
to pot a plant perhaps, but we do not all pot it properly.”— 
W. N. 
THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH GRAPE. 
No man is better entitled to a hearing on any subject relating to 
fruit culture than my friend Mr. J. Mclndoe, at the same time I feel 
it due to myself to correct a wrong impression his article on this 
Grape in the Journal for last week is likely to convey. He writes— 
“ When Mr. Thomson decided upon sending oast the Duke I chink he 
made a mistake in recommending it as an early variety that would 
come in two or three weeks before the Black Hamburgh.” What I did 
say—I quote from the circular I sent out—is this : “ In the same house 
with the Black Hamburgh it ripens three weeks before that variety.” 
This is exactly our experience of the Grape here, as anyone can dis¬ 
cover who will call about the first week in August. If Mr. Mclndoe 
construed my language so as to understand that I recommended it as 
an early-forcing Grape equal to the Hamburgh in this respect, I am 
very sorry. This was not my intention ; I merely related facts as I 
found them. 
Mr. Mclndoe condemns a method which I, and others, have recom¬ 
mended for stopping the splitting or cracking of Grapes, maintaining 
that the ascent of the sap from the roots to the foliage an! fruit has 
nothing to do with splitting, and characterises such an idea as 
“ nonsense.” He writes :—“ I have never seen an argument ad¬ 
vanced to prove the theory that the evil originates with the roots.” I 
will now supply him with one which many of your readers will con¬ 
sider a very old one, I expect. The sap, as no doubt Mr. Mclndoe 
will admit, passes from the earth through the small tubes in the roots, 
and flows through similar tubes in the most recently formed wood of 
the stem till it reaches the foliage. There it undergoes well-under¬ 
stood changes and descends, building up the general system of the 
plant, and, especially in the case of the Vine and other fruit-bearing 
plants, depositing certain constituents in the fruit. The volume of 
these constituents will be greater or less just as the quality of sap 
sent up by the roots is more or less, all other things being equal. 
Certain plants that are vigorous rooters and growers are more likely 
than those less so to send up a larger quantity of sap. This I have 
found a special characteristic of the Duke. When the growth of the 
Vine is allowed to extend in foliage and branch much of this great 
flow of sap is so appropriated; when not so appropriated the 
attractive power of the fruit secures a greater share than its skin can 
hold, and it splits. Common sense suggests that the remedy lies in 
intercepting the sap on its way to the fruit, and ample experience has 
proved that here common sense is and has been a safe guide, as it is 
in many other matters. 
Mr. Mclndoe tells us that he concludes that excess of sap is not 
the cause of cracking in the case of the berries of Grapes, “because 
the sap does not leak out through the apertures.” He further tells us 
that cracking is caused by the damping of the paths. “ This soon 
penetrates through the porous skin of the berries, causes an expansion 
of the juice of the tissues of the flesh, and the skin, not being elastic, 
soon gives way ; hence the cracking.” This excess of juice does not 
seem to leak out through the apertures any more than the ordinary 
sap ; consequently the non-leakage of the sap as evidence may be 
turned out of court, and it is not “quite clear that cracking is not 
caused by sap flowing from the roots.” According to my experience 
a certain remedy for the cracking of the berries of the Duke is to 
take a gimlet and bore through the stem which bears the bunch 
immediately below where it hangs. This, to some extent a sufficient 
one, destroys the small tubes carrying the sap from the roots to the 
foliage of that particular branch, consequently there is less for the 
downward flow to the fruit, and it does not crack. 
Mr. Kirk of Alloa, who, like Mr. Mclndoe, grows the Duke to 
great perfection, told me that now he never loses a berry of this 
Grape from splitting—he uses the gimlet. Last summer, after a 
heavy day’s rain, our Dukes began to crack, and a man in four hours 
put a complete stop to the cracking of more than six hundred bunches. 
Mr. Mclndoe says scalding Grapes in hot water will make them 
crack, but surely scalding water and the proper atmosphere of a 
properly managed vinery are somewhat dissimilar.—W m. Thomson, 
Tweed Vineyard. 
KITCHEN GARDEN NOTES. 
FRENCH BEANS. 
The cultivation of French or Kidney Beans is not attended 
with much difficulty in mild climates with the. additional ad¬ 
vantage of a well-sheltered garden, the soil of which is in a good 
state of cultivation. Where conditions less favourable have to 
be contended with, however, it may be well to remind those who 
have had little experience in vegetable-growing, that there are 
certain details connected with their culture which require special 
attention so that the plants may be afforded every chance of 
yielding fair crops. That this vegetable is much less hardy than 
most others should receive due consideration in se’ecting and 
preparing the ground on which the seed is to be sown. It is 
important that the borders or other plots selected should have a 
warm exposure, ft need not be a matter of surprise that failures 
result when a border is chosen which is shaded most of the after¬ 
noon in the height of summer. A border having a south or 
south-west aspect is a preferable position on which to sow, but 
in many gardens where the soil and exposure are good heavy 
crops of fine beans are picked from the open quarters. 
In bleak exposed districts where the soil of the garden may 
be cold and heavy, and the drainage inefficient, it is a good 
plan to have the former divided into breadths of 2 feet and 
then laid up in ridges for some time previous to sowing the 
seed. This is the best method for securing the full benefit of 
weather influences, more especially frost, which is well known 
to be a powerful agent in pulverising the soil. The ground, 
which it is presumed has been well dressed with decayed 
manure previous to ridging the ground, should be well broken 
with a steel fork in levelling the ridges, which must be done 
when the soil is neither very wet nor very dry, otherwise the 
plants cannot be expected to do well afterwai’ds. 
Regarding the proper season for sowing, the end of April 
is considered soon enough even in exceptionally mild districts 
and well-sheltered gardens. In one of the western islands of 
Scotland, although the atmosphere wa3 uniformly humid and 
mild, I found during several years’ practice there that owing to 
the exposed character of the country and lack of sufficient 
shelter therefrom, that nothing was gained by sowing French 
Beans till about the 1st of June. A sowing of seed at that time, 
although a fortnight later in yielding pods, is much more likely 
to do well than earlier sowings, which in cold exposed places can 
only be calculated upon as chance crops Three sowings in 
most places are sufficient to maintain a good supply from the 
middle of August tall they are cut down by frost, but in northern 
districts the last sowing must be made not later than the middle 
of June. With regard to the distance apart that the seed should 
