JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
380 
[ May 11, 1882. 
becomes an imperative necessity to retain tlie earliest- 
made foliage as long as possible, and the best way to 
do this is to keep up what may be called a growing 
atmosphere, say a minimum temperature of 65 Q with 
the usual rise by day, the damping and watering to be 
done in the same way as during the earlier part of the 
season. Supposing the colouring to commence at the 
end of July, this treatment should be continued till 
October, when a little less heat, say 60° minimum, will 
suffice ; but there must be no stint of water, and towards 
the middle of November we may come down to 55° at 
night, and that figure is low enough in the south of 
England till the foliage has fallen. 
Probably a great many of my readers have never 
been able to tell when their Muscats did begin colour¬ 
ing, for when grown in the ordinary way with less than 
half a sufficiency of foliage, and such as there is, is 
crowded very much, they may be said not to colour at 
all, but grown in the way I recommend they commence 
to colour slightly with the commencement of the 
second swelling, and they seem to me to continue to 
improve as long as there is a scrap of good stout foliage 
left. 
Happily the treatment which I have described as 
suiting the foliage is also that best suited to the fruit. 
The temperatures must be kept up something like those 
I have given, and yet there must be constant ventila¬ 
tion. It is not a great deal of fresh air that is wanted 
for Muscats and most of the thick-skinned Grapes as 
long as they continue swelling as compared with Ham- 
burghs, but they must have that little both by night 
and day. When the swelling is finished and the 
foliage of the thick-skinned varieties shows signs of 
ripening, more air may be admitted gradually till we 
come to the time at which I have recommended the 
minimum temperature to be dropped to 50°, when we 
must try by giving abundance of air during the day to 
prevent the temperature of the house rising too high. 
We have merely to keep the Grapes now, and that 
requires a temperature as even as it is possible to 
have it. 
The foliage of Muscats under the best treatment will 
towards autumn show signs of drying up round the 
edges, but it must not be concluded from this that it 
has finished its work ; so long as there is a particle of 
green in the leaves they are capable of doing something, 
and must be encouraged by continuing a growing 
atmosphere to do it. You may be sure there is some¬ 
thing wrong when the foliage is all off Vines which 
have not been hard forced so early as the beginning of 
November. Mine remain on till the middle of Decem¬ 
ber, and every leaf except those gathered for garnishing 
colours and falls of its own accord. When foliage 
from accident or unskilful treatment is not allowed to 
do its work in autumn we not only have a loss in the 
quality of the fruit, but we make ourselves needless 
troubles for the following year. — Wm. Taylor. 
(To be continued.) 
THE FORK AND THE SPADE. 
These two tools are so very useful and so closely connected 
that no one who knows the full value of both would think of 
setting them up against one another. There need be no fear of 
the spade ever being superseded in our gardens, but there are 
times when the fork is more useful. For all kinds of digging and 
trenching the spade should always be used, but when the crops 
are growing the fork is superior to any other tool which can be 
used. Hoeing amongst growing crops is a practice very fre¬ 
quently recommended at this season, but if forking were sub¬ 
stituted it would be a decided advantage to the crops. It does 
not matter how loose the surface of the ground may be at sow¬ 
ing or planting time, repeated heavy rains will soon make 
it hard and ungenial for the plants. As the soil becomes dry 
again the hoe is generally used for breaking the surface again, 
and the earth 2 or 3 inches down is never touched, and here 
where the roots are running most the hoe does no good ; but 
when the fork is used the result in every way is very different, 
as the soil is gently stirred for a considerable distance down, 
which admits air and moisture to the roots. 
If any vegetables, such as Cauliflowers, Cabbages, or root crops, 
appear to be at a standstill, hoeing between them does not insure 
immediate improvement, but if the fork is used the effects are 
quickly visible. In earthing up any crop the drag hoe does it 
quickly, but the fork does it best, and should always be used for 
this purpose when possible.—J. Muir. 
STOCKS FOR APPLE TREES. 
Is there any truth whatever in Mr. Edward Luckhurst’s state¬ 
ments (see p. 337) that Rivers’ Nonsuch Paradise stock imparts 
a late-blooming habit to the scion, or that the French Paradise 
induces the contrary—an early-flowering habit ? We are further 
counselled to use late-growing sorts, such as Court Pendu Plat, 
as stocks, thereby to insure safety to the flowers of the scions 
through the late-flowering habit that would be thus produced, 
which may be worthy of a trial. I have for some years paid 
some attention to grafting Apples on various kinds of stocks, but 
have never observed that any such result was produced ; extra 
vigorous trees are often a little later, but quite immaterial. Blen¬ 
heim Pippin, for example, grafted on ten different kinds of stocks, 
all flower at the same time every season. Cox’s Orange Pippin, 
some hundreds of trees grafted on the French Paradise, and about 
two acres of the same grafted on a mixture of stocks from Rivers’, 
are at the present time all in full flower together, and this season 
most abundant. I fear Mr. Luckhurst in his eagerness to cite 
virtues for his favourite stock, Rivers’ Nonsuch Paradise, has 
allowed his “valour” to exceed his discretion. The true French 
Paradise is noted for inducing precocity of flowering— i.e., the 
trees worked on this stock flower and produce fruit when quite 
young and small. It does not mean, as Mr. Luckhurst’s remarks 
would lead one to suppose, flowering early in the season. This 
is a fallacy and cannot be too strongly stated. It would be a 
dangerous qualification, and were it so of course Mr. Luckhurst 
would be justified in recommending the Nonsuch Paradise in 
preference if it has the virtue attributed to it. 
The Nonsuch Paradise is without a doubt a capital stock ; it is 
preferred by many to the French Paradise. Mr. G-eorge Paul for 
one prefers it, and why ? Because it grows more freely, makes a 
better stock as they say, and induces nearly equal early fruitful¬ 
ness to that of the French Paradise. The French Paradise is 
disliked by many in the nursery trade, because “ as a stock” it is 
difficult to keep alive. The stocks themselves have a singular 
habit of dying, yet when grafted the scion imparts life and vigour 
to the stock, and, notwithstanding Mr. Luckhurst’s opinion, it is 
admirably suited for all varieties of medium growth. See the 
wonderfully fine fruits grown on imported trees, and those who 
saw the beautiful collection of Apples grown by Messrs. Yeitch 
and Sons at Fulham may be interested to know that the largest 
and finest fruits were gathered from trees on the French Paradise 
stock.—B. 
FERTILISERS—POTASH AND MAGNESIA. 
In the first paragraph of my last letter, on page 368, I observe 
that through an error the words “ to the general and abundant 
use ” are shown between inverted commas, instead of in italics as 
I intended. I had no intention, that is to say, of attributing these 
exact words to “ Single-handed,” though I imagined that in 
using them I was giving his views in respect of the use of potash, 
and I wished to call his attention to them. From his last letter 
published together with my last in your impression of the 4th of 
May I learn that “ Single-handed ” considers our views on this 
question identical, and most certainly I see nothing that anyone 
could cavil at (though more opposed than I am to the general ad¬ 
dition of potash to stableyard manure) in the fuller explanation of 
his views now given. 
“ Single-handed ” describes some wonderful results obtained 
by the County of Cork Agricultural Society, in which an immense 
increase of crops followed the use of kainit as a manure. He states 
that if the increase observed was not due to the potash of the kainit 
it is difficult to understand how such results could have come about, 
and he leaves it to me “ to crack ” this “ nut.” 
