120 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ August 10, 1882. 
poses during the winter months. I can fancy some of my 
readers saying, “ All this looks very well on paper, but is it 
practicable?” and again, “What is to shelter our vegetable 
quarters if we dispense with garden walls ?" I can confidently 
assert the theory (not mine alone, remember) looks still better 
when reduced to practice, and this there are several who could, 
if they would, indisputably substantiate. With regard to the 
vegetable quarters, it has yet to be proved that they really re¬ 
quire so much protection ; in fact, it is my firm belief they 
would be much better without it. Why, and also my ideas as 
to the best arrangements of hardy common fruit trees, I must 
at present leave. 
If, however, a wall must be had, why not make it principally 
of glass, this to include a good revolving coping ? Scarcity of 
water cannot be urged against this already adopted idea. Dr. 
Parker of Bath has, I am credibly informed, for several years 
advocated glass walls, and I also am assured Mr. White of 
Crediton, Devon, has arranged several, and of which after nine 
years’ experience he can speak most highly. In this case the 
garden is divided by six of these glass walls, which are con¬ 
structed as follows:—A brick wall is built about 18 inches 
high, and on this is fixed the framework, this being about 6 feet 
high with a coping added. Whether the framework is made 
of wood or iron I do not know, neither does it much matter, 
but most probably it is of iron, as Mr. White is a blacksmith. 
Wires are strained on which to train the trees, and these Dr. 
Parker holds “ conduct the electric fluid that is naturally in 
the atmosphere to their nourishment.” Mr. White’s glass walls 
run from east to west, the south front being occupied by Apri¬ 
cots and Peaches, while on the other side can be grown Pears, 
Plums, and other fruits. The advantage of substituting glass 
for bricks is most apparent in the case of the trees on the north 
side, these getting the benefit of a greater amount of sunshine 
and light. Such dividing glass walls could be disposed any 
distance apart, and in the protected compartments thus formed 
can be grown vegetables or hardy small fruits. 
The best substitutes for a brick wall I have yet seen are the 
unheated houses designed and erected by the late Dr. Newing¬ 
ton of Ticehurst, Sussex. These have been fully described 
and illustrated in the Journal of Horticulture , and as managed 
by Mr. Salcombe, the highly respected and experienced gar¬ 
dener in charge, are most profitable. — W. Iggulden. 
TUBEROUS BEGONIAS AS BORDER FLOWERS. 
Foe several years Tuberous Begonias have been planted in beds 
and mixed borders here to a considerable extent, and this season 
more extensively than in any former year, there being sixteen 
beds of them in various gardens. Not excepting any other species 
or variety of plant tender or hardy—-not even Violas—these 
Begonias are the only plants that have really done well this 
season of remarkable wet and absence of sunshine. The month 
of July alone gave us nearly 9 inches of rain (there being only 
two wholly fair days in the month), yet the more it rains the 
fresher and the brighter Begonias look ; and at the present date 
(August 1st) amid torrents of rain they are a mass of bloom, 
while all hardy and tender-flowering plants look very poor, and 
vegetables being spoilt with wet. Begonias must therefore be 
regarded as very well adapted for wet localities, and we also 
found them do exceedingly well in the (here) dry and warm 
summer of 1880. On this account they are superseding Pelar¬ 
goniums, and can be managed with much less labour, as a pinch 
of seed sown in spring with proper treatment gives plants large 
enough for beds and borders the same season. Then the tubers 
can be lifted, potted in damp soil, and placed in any cool shed 
till March, when they can be removed to cold frames, and from 
thence into the borders without being potted.—D. Thomson. 
THE LONGLEAT VINES. 
So “ J. S. W.” would give me the honour of being one of his 
disciples in the matter of training and pruning, and quotes direc¬ 
tions which he gave two years ago on the subject. He further 
says “ it can afford them ”— i.e., himself and his co-workers, 
“ nothing but gratification to hear of that success ” which has 
followed the carrying-out of his system. Now all this would be 
very flattering to me, only it so happens that in my essay I was 
describing what took place in 1871, and his directions appeared 
nine years later. My essay was written entirely without refer¬ 
ences with the exception of two or three back numbers of thi 
Journal containing my writings, and I am not aware that I ever 
saw the passages in question written by “ J. S. W.,” whom I may 
be permitted to refer to as Mr. J. Simpson of Wortley Gardens, 
Sheffield, till he sent me a note on the subject through the medium 
of the Editor. That similar ideas should be found here and there 
to those which other people have written is not very marvellous, 
but I wonder which Mr. Simpson would think is the most trou¬ 
blesome to one who like myself may claim to be both a practical 
writer and practical worker—to garble the passages written by 
another, or to write off-hand my own ideas and experiences. 
That I should “ discuss the merits of young Vine rods 12 feet 
long ” is not to be wondered at, when it will be seen on reference 
to the preceding chapters I have distinctly stated that the arrange¬ 
ment “ left not more than 12 feet for the younger Vines to run 
without overlapping their elder brethren,” and in the Journal of 
March 2nd I state that the young Vines were cut to “ about 
12 feet.” That I should mention 60 feet is also not very mar¬ 
vellous when it is remembered that two of the compartments 
are each 80 by 30 feet, and that there is a Vine near each corner 
running generally half the length of the compartment, and then 
partly or wholly across it. 
My practice is to do all composition in shorthand, which enables 
me to write nearly as fast as I can think, and makes me altogether 
independent of Mr. Simpson or any other writer when I am simply 
describing my own work and expressing my own ideas. These 
shorthand notes are preserved, and are produceable. They can 
be made out by an expert in Pitman’s style, and, with the 
exception of a few corrections made during transposition, are 
word for word the same as have appeared in the Journal. 
It appears to me that Mr. Simpson is one of those unfortunate 
people who imagine they have invented and described everything 
that is good, and that every other person is incapable of doing 
anything higher than copying or imitating them. This form of 
hallucination almost amounts to a disease, and those afflicted with 
it are much to be pitied. 
By his opening remarks I gather that he lays claim to having 
introduced what is called the extension system of growing Vines 
and other fruit-bearing plants. Now as this is the most natural 
system it is reasonable to suppose it is the most ancient one, amd 
I may tell him as an indisputable fact that it was practised long 
before he was born—even, I have no doubt, at Wortley. 
At parallel columns your correspondent is certainly an adept, 
and I have no doubt that were Mr. Barnum to write an essay on 
rearing elephants Mr. Simpson would be able to find some passages 
which had been borrowed from bis own writings, especially if he 
depended on such an everyday term as “more apparent than 
real.” But seriously, these paper parallels are becoming rather 
stale, and I propose a change to parallels in practice by suggest¬ 
ing that three Grape-growers of public repute be chosen—and that 
Mr. Simpson shall have a good chance and not be placed at a dis¬ 
advantage, he may choose them himself—these three gentlemen 
to carefully examine the Vines at Wortley and at Longleat, and 
the grower of the second best to pay the expenses of the judges. 
This, it appears to me, would be more interesting to the public 
than mere strings of words however cleverly arranged. 
If from a feeling of modesty Mr. Simpson should hesitate to 
select the adjudicators as I have suggested, I am quite willing 
that they be nominated by the Editor of this Journal. 
It is not in consonance with my feelings to issue a challenge of 
this kind, and I would much prefer the more obscure work of 
steady improvement in Grape culture ; yet Mr. Simpson is so per¬ 
sistent in his own peculiar paper methods, that I feel driven to 
propose an alternative plan. I now respectfully ask that he cor¬ 
dially concur in the proposed arrangement or what he may say 
can have no weight, and his tiresome accusations will not be 
heeded. 
The shorthand text of my essay is at the disposal of the Editor. 
—Wm. Taylok. _ 
Your correspondent, Mr. Taylor, must by this time have ceased 
to wonder at Job’s reflection, “ Oh ! that mine adversary had 
written a book 1” He will not get much thanks for his trouble, 
and even I must have my little “ peck ” at him. The part of his 
treatise on Vine cultivation which has astonished my incredulous 
mind is the advice which he gives on manuring a Vine border. 
He states that his plan consists in the main of giving it “ soil 
passed through dry closets, and also some from a dry-earth urinal, 
with which is mixed a little wood ashes, and occasionally a few 
half-inch bones.” 
Now, I am a firm believer in the fertilising effects of human 
excreta, but I cannot blind my eyes to the fact that Voelcker’s 
opinion of the trifling value of earth-closet manure is substantially 
