350 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ October 20, 1881. 
This is all I can say at present on canker, its cause and 
prevention. 
Now as to the relative earliness of bearing of fruit trees. In 
ray experience varieties as a rule that mature fruit early 
bear early. There may be exceptions, but only, I think, suffi¬ 
cient to prove the rule. Let anyone plant rows of Apple trees 
of, say, Keswick Codlin, Lord Suffield, Duchess of Oldenburg, 
Stirling Castle, Cellini, and Ilawthornden ; and other rows, 
say, of Dumelow’s Seedling, Winter Greening, Blenheim 
Pippin, Norfolk Beefing, Alfriston, and Boston Russet, and I 
think the first named six sorts will, during the first five years 
after planting, yield fully three times the bulk of fruit that the 
last six will. The varieties named are not “selections ” of the 
best sorts to grow, but the names have been jotted down at 
random to illustrate what I believe is a principle—that early- 
ripening fruits are produced by early-bearing trees. I cannot 
go further into the subject now, and leave the idea for what 
it is worth, and I think it may possibly be worth something 
to those who wish to have a maximum quantity of fruit in a 
minimum amount of time after planting the trees. What do 
others say ? — A Northern Gardener. 
AUTUMN PROPAGATION OF ROSES. 
During the summer a method for the propagation of unripe 
cuttings of Roses was described, and I hare reason to believe that 
some readers have practised it successfully. It is, I think, the 
easiest and surest plan of propagation with which I am acquainted, 
but there is the difficulty of preserving the young plants through 
the following winter, which with some amateurs is a serious one. 
With winter propagation there need not be any difficulty in this 
way ; the chief drawback is that some of the varieties do not 
ripen their wood sufficiently under ordinary outdoor culture to 
form cuttings such as we can warrant to strike. All those which 
are well ripened and are of moderate-sized growth maybe counted 
on, and there is very little to do besides inserting them properly 
in the open ground and leaving them there. Such Roses as do 
not ripen their wood under ordinary culture will generally do so 
if grown in pots, when their shoots will be almost as sure to strike 
root as those of a Jules Margottin. Any of them, however, will 
strike in summer time under the treatment recommended for that 
season. 
Although the plan of inserting Rose cuttings in autumn is 
probably the oldest plan for their propagation in existence, and 
it has been considei'ably revived during the past eighteen or 
twenty years, and received decided patronage from high quarters 
during the last four or five, it is not even now practised so often 
or so successfully as it ought to be, and the time may not be 
inopportune for once more reverting to the subject. 
One common cause of failure is delaying the work too late. 
The last half of October and the first half of November is the 
time to insert the cuttings. If it is done later than November 
the chances are that the result will be a partial or total failure. 
Another cause of failure is keeping the cuttmgs too long out of 
the ground. Perhaps there is a spell of bad weather, and on the 
score of economy an armful of cuttings are taken off in a hurry, 
carried to a warm dry shed, made leisurely there, and inserted at 
the first favourable opportunity. This plan will not do ; it has 
been tried and failed. Although there may be no leaves on the 
cuttings, yet there is considerable evaporation from the bark, at 
any rate it soon begins to shrivel, though at first this is impercep¬ 
tible, and cuttings which have been kept out of the ground forty- 
eight hours do not strike so freely as those which have been inserted 
immediately on severing them from the parent plant. If it is 
necessary for them to travel any distance they should be wrapped 
in something, such as damp moss, to prevent much evaporation. 
A third cause of failure arises from the cuttings being heaved 
out of the ground by the frost. To prevent this it is a good plan 
to place 2 inches of coal ashes over the surface of the ground 
after the cuttings are inserted, and to tread along with one foot 
on each side close to the cuttings two or three times during winter 
after the frost is out of the ground. I also find it an advan¬ 
tage to make the cuttings longer than they are usually made—a 
foot is not too long—half of which should be in the ground. 
However, cuttings half that length will do where wood is scarce, 
but they must be looked to oftener during winter to see that the 
soil is properly close round them. 
A fourth cause of failure which I have frequently met with 
arises from having the cuttings in what is called a sheltered place 
—against a wall or a hedge, where the soil is likely to be very 
poor and perhaps dry—and the plants, if plants are produced, do 
not get sufficient air and light, but grow at unseasonable times 
and do not ripen, thus becoming an easy prey to mildew and 
other maladies, and are also difficult to remove. Let me remind 
your readers again that the Hybrid Perpetual Rose is not a tender 
plant unless it is made so by being coddled, that my cuttings 
are struck in the open garden along with the Gooseberries and 
Currants, and that the temperature at zero does them no harm, 
although I do not take the precaulion to cover the surface with 
ashes or similar material as I am recommending others to do. 
“But,” said a near and dear neighbour not unknown to your 
pages, “ I covered my Rose roots with 6 inches of dung, and many 
of them are killed to the ground.” “ Possibly you did. Keep the 
dung away from them another season if they are on their own 
roots, or are dwarfs on Briars raised from seed or cuttings. 
Loosen the surface soil with a hoe now and then when it is dry, 
and you will succeed better.” 
Last year I went so far from previous practice as to leave a 
space of a foot from one cutting to another, and I may say that 
the experiment is satisfactory with most of the cuttings which 
were taken from plants in pots and some of those which were 
taken from plants growing in the open ground. Of the former, 
for instance, ten out of eleven Etienne Dupuy are now fine plants, 
one cutting having died. Of Madame Tlffir^se Levet, a most 
beautiful indoor Rose, fourteen cuttings all struck. Of La France, 
thirteen out of sixteen, and on one of the cuttings of the last- 
named variety during the summer I pointed out to a visitor 
three blooms as good as any I had seen at exhibitions this 
season. A row of Jules Margottin, perhaps 25 yards long (we 
cannot do without this old sort yet for cut flowers) taken from 
outdoor plants has nearly all struck and forms a nice little 
hedge. This has produced many very fair flowers for cutting. 
I may here repeat that there is no better plan for inserting the 
cuttings than by making a trench box-edge fashion, placing the 
end of the cuttings firmly on the bottom, and then treading the 
soil in as hard as a turnpike road. Well-ripened wood is essential, 
but whether there is a heel or not is immaterial.—W. Taylor. 
THE USE OF FIRE HEAT FOR GRAPES. 
“ Single-handed’s” article on the application of fire heat to 
Grape Vines strikes to the point fair and forcibly. The cardinal 
point in the culture of all trees from which fruit is produced is 
to obtain ripe wood in autumn ; the unfolding of the blossom and 
setting of the crops are then simple matters the following spring. 
Ripening the wood is the point from which we start, and in 
like manner we finish with ripening the wood again with its crop 
of fruit the following autumn. The conditions required for ripen¬ 
ing both wood and fruit are identical—under natural conditions 
a warm sunny air, which we imitate by warm atmospheres arti¬ 
ficially produced. Again and again the advantage of giving 
Vines a long season of growth has been pointed out in the 
Journal, though never perhaps more effectively than by “ Single- 
handed ” on page 317. The middle of February is quite late 
enough in this district I find to start Grapes for winter keeping ; 
indeed the beginning of the month is not too early. 
I shall commence cropping some young Muscats next year, and 
shall start them, as I intend to keep them going, at the beginning 
of February. We can then allow the temperature to depend 
greatly on the weather, and grow the Vines slowly till the setting 
period in May, and thus have all the advantages of the summer 
and autumn sun for finishing the fruit, ripening the wood the 
meanwhile, and with the aid of a little fire heat can have the 
crops ripened thoroughly at a season when there is no difficulty 
in doing so. Black Hamburghs started in April ripen well with 
us and in good time. 
The Grapes shown by Mr. Simpson at Edinburgh are the text 
on which your able correspondent founds his remarks. I quite 
agree with him as to the wastefulness apparent in the culture of 
these Grapes. It will take hard firing to have them well ripened, 
and it is impossible to impart to them the quality of Grapes 
ripened five weeks earlier. I can well imagine that gardeners 
who have tried Mr. Simpson’s system in its integrity would be 
induced to give it up as a failure after seeing the Grapes in 
question. 
When 1 thought the matter over before giving low temperatures 
an extended trial I put the rationale of the principle in this way. 
Early-forced Grapes are found to succeed in temperatures which 
are thought to be insufficient later on, though of course early- 
forced Vines have the advantage of hot weather to ripen in. For 
instance, Black Hamburghs to be ripe in early summer are in 
flower, say, in the beginning of February, and receive a tempe¬ 
rature ranging between 70° and 75°. In a fortnight these tem¬ 
peratures are lowered to G5° to 70°, and in sunless weather may 
