December 8,1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 515 
Fig. 82 .—Violet princess op Prussia. 
from my canes ; be removes more than 90 per cent, from bis. He 
takes above ten times more nutriment out of bis border than 1 do, 
while 1 store twice as much nutrient matter in the canes as he 
does. My practice is therefore very different from his, and I 
think more economical. Now to results. Vines so treated in 
their early stages produced when they were fifteen years old 
Grapes that won prizes both at the Royal Horticultural and Royal 
Botanical Societies’ shows, and the same Vines, now twenty-five 
years old, yield Grapes of the highest order both in size of I" it y 
and quality ; but, owing to the wants of a large young family, 
twice the number of bunches have to be grown than were formerly 
needed, and these are of course smaller in proportion : but the 
Vines themselves are in sound health. 
I feel convinced I can obtain more and better Grapes by the 
plan proposed by Mr. Iggulden, with the aid of supernumeraries, 
than I possibly could do if I crowded the roof with foliage like a 
“thicket” and then mercilessly burned seven-eighths of the canes 
for the sake of a peck of ashes. I can get ashes cheaper than 
that, and Grapes cheaper too, than by the exhaustive system 
advocated. 
When Vines are allowed to grow in wild luxuriance all through 
the season they produce yards of growth and hundreds of so-called 
leaves, that are certainly not feeders of the Vine, but, on the con¬ 
trary, robbers. This is a point and, I think, a fact, that “ Single- 
handed ” appeared to overlook in his scientific reply to Mr. 
Iggulden a few weeks ago.— An Old Grower, 
VIOLET PRINCESS OF PRUSSIA. 
In Mr. G. Abbey’s notes on Violets, published a few weeks 
since, I saw no special mention of Mr. Lee’s fine new Violet 
Princess of Prussia. Possibly he may not have given it a fair 
trial. I have had it in cultivation now for about twelve months, 
and have quite satisfied myself that it is the fiuest single Violet 
in my collection, much superior to Victoria Regina and odora- 
tissima. It has been blooming freely since September, and the 
correspondents would find him giving more liberty to the growth 
than they would consider safe. It appears to me, tlien, that the 
inconsistency would be on their side. They begin with the ramb¬ 
ling fashion, and then come back to what at any rate I should 
call rather severe restriction. We begin with comparative re¬ 
striction, and continue that system till stopped by circumstances 
over which we have no control, such as the non-elasticity of the 
sides of the house or the garden.— Wm. Taylor. 
[This article was written before the Journal of last week 
appeared.—E d.] _ 
I have no difficulty in replying to Mr. Bardney’s questions on 
page 500. As to cutting down Vines as recommended by your 
correspondent, who appears to grow canes 30 or 40 feet long in 
lumraer and removes all but perhaps 3 feet in winter, thus re¬ 
moving all the best buds, I am aske 1 if I do not do the “very 
same” in pruning restricted Vines 1 N), I do very differently. 
My canes are, say, 9 or 10 feet long, hard, strong, and have pro¬ 
duced foliage of great texture, every leaf of which has been a 
working leaf, as is apparent by the prominent eyes, almost down 
to the base of the rafters. The best buds are not at the top of the 
Vines, for those formed there are not hard and dormant but have 
swelled more or less. They only begin to be really sound and 
satisfactory at from 18 inches to 2 feet from the top ; but to make 
sure 1 only retain thoroughly sound wood—I remove, say, 3 or 
4 feet from the canes and leave 5 or fi feet according to circum¬ 
stances. I have plenty of the finest possible buds left, but he has 
not by his exhausting system. I remove, say, 30 or 40 per cent. 
