JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
150 
[ February 23, 1882. 
the flowers did not set well, and on examination we 
found when it was too late to remedy the setting that 
some of the halls were as dry as dust in the centre. 
We ought to have placed older and more manageable soil 
round these balls when planting them, and made it as 
difficult for the water to enter it as it was to enter the 
balls. When the evil was detected we formed a basin 
with clay round the stem rather less than the diameter 
of the old ball, which was pierced with a sharp stick, 
and the water was applied only in these basins, with 
the result of making some good berries, but many of 
the bunches were loose, especially the Muscats. 
The younger and permanent Vines did not suffer in 
this way, they being at the time of planting not so much 
root-bound, and besides the precautions which I have 
stated ought to have been taken with the soil round 
the temporary Vines were taken in their case, which 
was more important.— Wm. Taylor. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTES ON VEGETABLES. 
New Early Cauliflowers. —Last season I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of giving several of these a fair trial. On taking charge 
of the gardens here I found a number of Veitch’s Extra Early 
Forcing in handlights, and these fully maintained their adver¬ 
tised character. They wese dwarf and compact in growth, and 
produced small close heads, fit for use about ten days before the 
Early London. More seed of Veitch’s was early in March sown on 
a slight hotbed, and at the same time a pinch of Carter’s Defiance, 
Extra Early Forcing, a new Extra Early received from Messrs. 
Suttons, and which answers to the description of Suttons’ First 
Crop, and Dean’s Snowball. The plants resulting were hardened 
off and carefully planted on a good open piece of ground, but 
eventually they proved so much alike in every respect, that with¬ 
out labels it was impossible to separate them. All were fit for 
use early in June. Dean’s Snowball has been in the trade for 
some time though sold at an almost prohibitive price, but what 
is the history of the others ? Are they of continental origin and 
all from the same stock ? Good and useful they most certainly 
are, and it is, perhaps, an advantage being able to procure them 
from different seedsmen, though I should think it preferable to 
have them all under the same name. All lovers of Cauliflowers, 
and those whose duty it is to supply the table with them, should 
order a packet of one of the above-mentioned varieties. They 
may be planted about 15 inches apart each way, and at this 
distance will doubtless prove a profitable crop. Snowball has 
proved a good midsummer and early autumn variety. 
Autumn Cauliflowers. —We were fortunate in having a 
good breadth of Dickson, Brown, & Tait’s Eclipse Cauliflower, 
as these, in spite of much trouble from insect pests, produced 
fine heads about three weeks before Veitch’s Autumn Giant. In 
other respects it much resembles the latter well-known valuable 
variety. The seed of both was sown on a slight hotbed about the 
last week in March. Some of the seedlings were pricked out on 
a warm border, the remainder when well hardened off being 
planted with a good ball of soil attached on a cool rich piece of 
ground, and were the first to form heads. In the case of early 
Cauliflowers small close heads are generally preferred, but we 
seldom hear complaints of the autumn kinds being too large 
providing they are not old and opening. 
Brussels Sprouts. —The past season has apparently been 
most favourable to the production of good sprouts. It has also, 
in several instances, demonstrated the fact of the possibility of 
growing them much too large. This has been the case here with 
Suttons’ Reading Exhibition and the Aigburth. Both of these 
varieties are of easy culture, being almost certain to produce a 
heavy crop of large close sprouts, but we next season shall have 
to grow the smaller if more variable imported. I hope the next 
“improvement” in Brussels Sprouts will be less apparent—that 
is to say, will in habit resemble either of the above varieties, it 
does not much matter which, and the individual sprouts when 
well grown be nearer the size of Greengage Plums than Peaches. 
Reading Exhibition sown on a slight hotbed during March, the 
seedlings well hardened off and transplanted to an open spot, the 
soil of which is a rich clayey loam, yielded good sprouts during 
August, and at the present time there are still numbers forming 
under the tops, while the lower parts of the stems are clothed 
with a second crop of serviceable little knobs. This feature is 
scarcely so marked in the Aigburth, otherwise they are much 
alike. Have any of the readers of the Journal of Horticulture 
grown the Aigburth on rather light and comparatively poor 
soil 1 If so, they will greatly oblige by communicating results.— 
W. IGGULDEN Marston. 
VINES AND PLANTS. 
I venture to add a few lines with regard to the winter tem¬ 
perature of vineries which has been raised by “ Nor’-Easter’S ” 
letter to the Journal of Horticulture of the 5th, and “Wistful’s” 
of the 19th, and carried on in your issue of the 26th ult. From 
my own experience I am sure that Vines do not suffer from 
warm treatment in the winter. In my case, certainly, Vines are 
only a secondary consideration ; in other words I am growing 
Vines in plant houses, but find I can obtain a very fair amount of 
good Grapes without in any way interfering with my flowers. 
I have two span-roofed houses, one opening into the other, 
25 by 16 each, 6 feet 9 inches high at the sides or eaves, and 
from 12 to 13 feet in the centre. My object in making the houses 
was to obtain every ray of light I could. The houses run from 
north to south, the glass facing east and west, except that on the 
south side of each of the double-spanned houses I have also 
sloped the roof north and south so as to form a hipped roof 
facing south, 16 feet wide at the eaves and running up to the 
apex of the roof at the same angle as the side-spanned roofs. 
The stages for plants are 3 feet high with the hot-water pipes 
under them, and the sides of the houses are glazed to the level of 
these plant stages, which are made of wood, 11 inch red deal 
boards 1 inch thick cut into four. These are fastened about 
half an inch apart on 3 inch by 2 inch uprights, with a top rail of 
the same dimensions with 1£ inch by half inch strips nailed on 
the front edges of all the wood staging to prevent the pots from 
being knocked off. This stage is 3 feet wide and goes round all 
the houses, and I have utilised the uprights to carry the hot-water 
pipes on wood cross pieces tenoned into uprights and fastened 
into the brick walls, which are of 9-inch brick up to the level of 
the staging, with holes left for ventilation the width of half a 
brick, and the depth of two for air to circulate on to the hot- 
water pipes. Wooden shutters hinged on the inside, which are 
worked by means of cords, are used to regulate the amount of air 
admitted. 
I have a central stage in each house, the lower part the same 
level as the side stages—that is to say, 3 feet from the paths, 
which are of brick, but the centre part is raised 1^ foot above 
this for larger plants, leaving about 8 feet 6 inches head-room to 
the apex of the roof. 
I made a tank 12 feet long and 6 feet wide of brick cemented 
in the centre of the two houses about 7 feet deep to catch the 
water from the roof. This is arched over, and forms a central 
Vine border by raising the brick sides to the level of the staging, 
and the division between the two houses runs down the centre of 
this border. One part of this border is continued I feet beyond 
the arched top of the tank, and the only ALne I now have in the 
cooler house, a Black Hamburgh, is planted in this part of the 
border, and the roots are allowed to run at their will through the 
bottom of the border and into the soil, for as the soil of the 
garden is only a light sandy loam on a well-drained subsoil, I do 
not think the roots of the Vine are any the worse tor wandering 
into the subsoil below the staging. I had at one time three other 
A r ines in this A r ine border, but as I did not wish the A r ines to 
interfere too much with the plants I have only one now, which is 
planted at the south end of the inner border, and after rising to 
the apex of the roof it is trained horizontally along the top. Over 
the centre staging and the two side pathways I have planted in 
this border in the cooler house Jasminum grandiflorum, Aloysia 
citriodora, Kennedya Maryattse, and Habrothamnus elegans. 
The two latter are now blooming freely, and will continue to do 
so till nearly June when they are cut back. This, the cooler 
house, I keep at an average temperature of from 50° to 60° in the 
daytime, and never allow it, if I can avoid it, to fall below 40° 
at night. On the side stages we strike the Zonal Pelargoniums 
for summer bedding in 4-inch pots, and have them also in 6 and 
7-inch pots in bloom most of the winter. 
In 1874 I enlarged the warmer house, owing to being able to 
get an exchange of land bordering to the east of my kitchen 
garden by adding a lean-to 25 by 7, continuing the eastern slope 
of the roof to within 18 inches of the ground level, and sunk a 
footpath into the house 2 feet deep and 2j wide, making an inside 
border for Vines 4 feet wide, arching the wall a little below ground 
level at intervals of 2 feet, so as to give room for the roots of the 
