536 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTA GE GARDENER. r December is, issi. 
disease. Magnum Bonum, he says, is remarkable for everything 
but quality. With me it is a great cropper, free from disease, 
of first-rate quality, and keeps well till late in the season. School¬ 
master he finds very disappointing. It is one of the sorts most 
grown here, is of good quality, very floury when cooked, and not 
of such bad shape as your correspondent finds it. We depend on 
it and Magnum Bonum for our main crop. Triumph, he says, 
quality “fairly good ; ” with us it is very bad in quality, watery, 
and of bad flavour though free from disease. We shall not grow 
it again. Vicar of Laleham, Victoria, and Brownell’s Superior, 
though of good quality, are very much diseased this year. Covent 
Garden Perfection, though of good flavour and free from disease, 
is a small cropper here. Redskin Flourball, International, and 
Scotch Champion are coarse and bad flavoured. Woodstock 
Kidney is a very handsome Potato, with shallow eyes, good in 
quality, but does not grow very large though a fair size for table. 
Snowflake is of excellent quality, but is a little diseased some 
years. Reading Abbey I do not like ; though a good cropper the 
tubers are of bad shape with deep eyes. Hundredfold Fluke is 
bad in quality and much diseased. Trophy is a great cropper ; it 
keeps well, and is of good quality. 
The following six varieties I think are worthy of attention, 
as they are to a considerable degree free from disease—Magnum 
Bonum, Schoolmaster, Woodstock Kidney, Trophy, Beauty of 
Hebron, and Early Cockney ; the last named for first early, and 
it is especially suitable for frame culture.—A Surrey GROWER. 
LIFTING OLD VINES. 
I have read with interest the notes on Marston and Longleat, 
and especially the references to the Vines at Marston. As old 
Vines I take a great interest in them, and shall be glad to hear 
through the Journal next season how they have behaved. If the 
wood ripened well this year good Grapes will be sure to follow 
next season. Many gardeners are afraid to interfere with the 
roots of Vines, and most of the failures of bad colouring is 
through the roots being in exhausted soil. You may supply 
liquid manure and top-dress with manure, but the results are not 
what would be obtained with good loam and wood ashes. By 
removing the exhausted soil and applying new we do not lose a 
crop of Grapes, but improve it the first season. I have lifted 
several Vines which were thought to be worn-out with bad 
treatment and age, and I knew before I started lifting them that 
my employers would expect good Grapes the following season. I 
will briefly state how I proceeded. 
Where the roots were I did not know ; we tried in several places 
and could not find any. At last we found a few black-looking 
sticks amongst the drainage, which proved to be roots. The soil 
was prepared previously, and consisted of good loam, brick 
rubbish, and wood ashes. I may state that ours were lifted 
in September and October when they were bearing the foliage, 
but almost equal results may be obtained by lifting now. In 
fact, where late Grapes are required it is impossible to commence 
lifting before this. When lifting now choose mild weather, as 
frost would injure the roots if exposed. Dig a trench about 
8 feet deep from the outside wall, cutting off all the old roots. If 
the roots are inside and out it will be better, as the few roots 
that are inside will help the Vines to start next season if they are 
well watered. After the trench is made commence forking the 
soil out, working very carefully or the roots will break. Do one 
Vine at a time. If the drainage is defective renew it, and fill up 
the border to within 1 foot of the surface, and then spread out 
the roots, cutting off the bruised parts with a sharp knife, and 
notch them at intervals. Cover the roots with fine soil, and let 
the upper roots be within G inches of the surface. Cover the 
border when finished with straw to protect it from wet and frost. 
When ready start the Vines into growth very gently. When the 
shoots are about 8 inches long, be careful not to hurry them, as 
it is the stored-up sap that has caused them to grow. When the 
shoots have made good progress give a good watering with water 
about 90°. As their roots will be emitted freely let the laterals 
run a few joints longer than usual, and allow a few to grow at 
the top and the bottom of the rod to maintain root-action. If 
this process is carefully carried out and good cultural attention is 
given, old Vines may soon appear young again, and fruitless rods 
fruitful.—A Berkshire Man. 
Flowers in Autumn.— All admit that flowers are beautiful at all 
seasons, but the scarcer they are the more they are prized. The old 
Monthly China Rose, as well as the White China, are now very 
beautiful and do us good service for cutting. Spring-sown Pansies 
are flowering freely. Aster elegans is a grand object in the borders 
now, and Aster dumosus is highly attractive. Helleborus atro-rubens 
is flowering in the border and likely to continue for a long time ; 
H. olympicus is also in beauty. Both these are worthy of extensive 
cultivation. Other kinds of Hellebores are coming into bloom, with 
a little protection will be fine for Christmas decoration.— North 
York. 
ADIANTUM FARLEYENSE. 
I HAVE no doubt there are many readers of the Journal who 
would like to grow this lovely Fern, but are prevented doing so 
through not knowing that it will thrive in a greenhouse with a 
minimum temperature of 45° through the winter months. Many 
fail to succeed through continually shifting the plants into larger 
pots and not supplying sufficient water. It ought on no account 
be allowed to become dry, but the soil should always be kept moist. 
The soil used for potting should be sandy loam with plenty of 
broken bricks and charcoal well mixed and placed firmly in the 
pots, these being well drained so that the water passes freely 
through. 
By the above treatment fine specimens can be had 3 feet in 
diameter in a short time, and the fronds will be much more last¬ 
ing, and carry that beautiful tint on the young fronds which 
forms such a contrast to the older ones. We find small plants 
of this Fern are very useful for room-decorating. They last 
several weeks in good health. 
The old fronds are in great request here, and by cutting the 
mature fronds the plants are continually producing young fronds 
even in midwinter.— S'l'IFFORD. 
[Some fronds accompanying this letter were very fine.— Ed.] 
SOME EFFECTS OF THE SEASONS IN 1881. 
Without reference to meteorological instruments or tables, 
but judging from observations horticulturally, I am under the 
impression that the characteristics of the weather in 1881 will 
include a low average summer and autumn temperature, a defi¬ 
ciency of sunshine, and an excess of cold drying winds ; and 
that this year will, if possible, prove more marked and singular 
in its effects on vegetation than any of its predecessors in the 
unpropitious cycle of years, the last of which I trust we are 
passing through, and which have all had their seasons more or less 
out of gear. 
Notwithstanding the excessively hot days of June and July, 
it is only on the assumption that the average temperatures, espe¬ 
cially of the summer nights, have been low and sunshine deficient, 
that I can account for the less perfect development and ripening 
of several plants and seeds than in either of the apparently 
colder years of 1879 and 1880. From this or some other unex¬ 
plained cause or causes, the same varieties of Indian Corn, sown 
under at least equally favourable circumstances, have not ripened 
so well. Tomatoes in the open air up to early August looked 
promising, and with another week’s hot weather would probably 
have mostly ripened as they did in 1880. In early August some 
showed colour and a few ripened, and for nearly six weeks after¬ 
wards remained almost at a standstill. The plants loaded with 
full-sized fruit were then seized by the Potato disease and the 
crop totally lost. Some tender Haricot Beans from the West 
Indies, and a variety of Physalis which partially ripened in 1879 
and 1880, either never flowered or lost their flowers this year, 
although grown each year in warm situations. Ridge Cucumbers 
were also an unsatisfactory crop, and showed unmistakeable signs 
of the influence of cold nights ; and some early Wheat, although 
sown earlier this year, did not ripen earlier than in the past two 
seasons. 
On the other hand, outdoor Grapes have ripened in good time 
and better than they have done for several years past, and doubt¬ 
less the concentration or the distribution of heat and sunshine 
at certain times has contributed to this result, as the Vine is 
altogether a hardier plant, which will bear greater variations of 
temperature. Early Peas coming in before the expiration of the 
hot weather ripened very quickly, and the extremely dwarf variety 
Minimum not only ripened a second crop of seed, but these again 
vegetated, and if the seedlings had been allowed to remain would 
probably now have been in pod. During the past three seasons 
I have secured no thoroughly ripened Rose seed from the open 
air, but this year I have obtained a good many ripe heps, the result 
of cross-fertilisation, the fine open weather of the past month 
probably accounting materially for this ; but all will perhaps be 
more satisfactorily explained on a comparison of the mean sum¬ 
mer and autumn day and night temperatures of the present and 
past two seasons. The last unusually wet September told very 
destructively upon the harvest of late Peas and other seeds as well 
as upon corn, and the recent unseasonably mild and moist weather 
is producing results which might have been anticipated after a 
