December SO, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
581 
are outside, and the exposed shoots and buds are in its normal winter 
state. A little distance from me there are Gloire de Dijon and Marechal 
Niel Roses planted outside a glass structure, and both of these Roses pro¬ 
duce flowers during winter upon the shoots inside. My opinion is that to 
grow many plants well the temperature surrounding them must be 
greater than that at the roots. If a tree be planted near a house the 
moment its shoots reach the slates they grow rapidly and lie flat upon 
them. The growth of trees in this situation is more rapid than of those 
only a few yards distant. 
Fruit Trees. — I have some Apple trees that have shown blossom 
buds for many years, but although summer and root-pruned have 
never burst into bloom, but remained in a latent state. About eight 
years ago I resolved on removing one favourite tree to a more secure 
place. To prepare it for this during midsummer I cut back the current 
year’s growth and cut a trench about 2£ feet from the stem of the tree, 
and in a few days the flower buds formed years before burst into bloom. 
Query, Why did it and others refuse to bloom under similar autumn and 
spring treatment, and what should be done to force similar trees to bloom 
at the proper time ?—W. T., N. B. 
THE PAST SEASON’S GARDENING. AND SEED LIST. 
Making out the seed list is a matter of great importance to gardeners. 
As the time is at hand for ordering next year’s supply many will be 
engaged in filling up their respective lists, and to those who are making 
out their first order it will in some cases prove very difficult. Therefore I 
am sure your correspondents, “ J. L. B.” and Mr. Chisholm’s notes, will 
prove useful. I only intend making brief remarks on a few sorts of 
vegetables grown here duriug the past season, the soil being light, of good 
depth, with a gravelly subsoil. Peas were sown in trenches, which 
proved a benefit, for during a long period of very hot weather we were 
enabled to water them with better results than if they had been sown on 
the level ground. Dicksons’ First and Best was our earliest. Carter’s 
Stratagem is undoubtedly a first-class Pea, and deserves to be extensively 
grown ; Champion of England, Telephone, Carter’s Surprise, and Fill- 
basket yielded good crops. French Beans.—Early Prolific, Carter’s 
Longsword, and Canadian Wonder. There was not much to choose 
between the two latter, both being very prolific. Cabbage.—Little Pixie, 
Heartwell Early Marrow, and Mammoth Beef-heart. The former is soon 
ready for cutting, and of the two latter I consider Mammoth Beef-heart to 
be the best, I believe it will stand very severe weather. Cauliflower.— 
Eclipse, Veitch’s Autumn Giant, and Improved Autumn Giant. Brussels 
Sprouts.—Carter’s Perfection. Onions were sown without manure, and 
although the bulbs are small they are firm and keeping well, Blood Red 
and Brown Globe being the best; Giant White Tripoli for autumn sowing. 
The first sowing of Carrots in the open was a failure, owing to the wire- 
worm attacking them; Early Scarlet Horn for early use and James’ 
Intermediate for succession were sown. I made a sowing of Early Horn 
Carrot and Green Top Stone Turnip at the end of July. They grew 
without any check and are most serviceable at this season. Potatoes.— 
Ashleaf Kidney for early use ; Pride of the Market, Reading Hero, and 
Clarke's Main Crop Kidney. The last named was not so good 
and showed disease when lifted. Carter’s Sukreta is the best second 
early I have seen, a very heavy cropper, with handsome tubers, which 
when cooked are while and mealy. 
Celery.—Sandringham White, Incomparable Crimson, and Major 
Clarke’s Red. I may observe here that the Celery seed was not] sown 
until the end of March and not subjected to any artificial heat, but kept 
in a cool frame; none, so far, have run to seed. The Celery grub was 
troublesome for a time, but the best way to get rid of this pett is to pluck 
off all leaves with the grub in and burn them. This autumn a sort of scale 
has made much havoc among a part of the Celery ; it appeared very 
suddenly and spread so rapidly that it seems almost impossible to eradicate 
it without destroying the Celery. Have others been troubled with it? A 
remedy for such a pest would prove a boon to more besides myself if it is 
at all general.—G. Garner, Amberwood Gardens, Hants. 
GRAPES WITHOUT HEAT FOR THE MILLION. 
The Vine is a free-growing, highly ornamental, and useful 
hardy climber. It is unrivalled for rapidity of growth and for 
covering a large space quickly; its handsome bright shining green 
foliage place it at the head of plants of the kind named. For 
my part, I consider there is no climber at all approaching the 
Vine in beauty. Others have more attractive blossoms. The 
Rose, Clematis, Jasmine, Passiflora, Honeysuckle, &c., are 
charming for flowers or scent, or both; but attractive as they 
are, and pleasing as they may be, the charm is lacking which 
gives the most enduring of satisfaction—namely, a rich harvest 
of fruit. To the cultivator no other subject appeals so forcibly 
as the Vine. It is so accommodating, tractable, and useful as to 
out-distance all competitors. Only fancy an eye, a bud very 
much less than half an ounce in weight, making a shoot almost 
as thick as a walking stick and ripening to a length of three 
yards, brown and hard enough, with eyes like nuts, in a few 
short months, say six, then given a few weeks’ rest, and in six 
months more giving as many pounds of Grapes as feet of cane 
are left. 
Grapes have been grown and ripened outdoors in Britain 
from time immemorial. The Romans, no doubt, introduced the 
Vine, but there is no record of such event. Vineyards are men¬ 
tioned by the venerable Bede, and he was a dweller in the 
“ north country,” so that vineyards, which means vintages and 
wine, were not confined to the “ sunny south;” indeed, outdoor 
Grapes ripen in the Vale of York quite as well as in that of the 
Thames or Severn. The point seems to be to avoid wet or cold 
districts, either from a stubborn moisture-holding soil or an 
elevated bleak situation. A moderately high situation, so as to 
be free from stagnant water, lying well to the sun all day long, 
the south or other slope of a hill that would present the surface 
at an angle to absorb the sun’s rays, withal sheltered from 
northerly blasts, soil of a nature securing the free percolation 
through it of rain, and an under stratum that admitted its free 
passage to the rivulet or streamlet; a land, in fact, of hill and 
dale, counterpart of the illustrious Syrian, and of limestone for¬ 
mation. The valleys or the flats, not all fens of dark vegetable 
debris, or of alluvial character, but sand, gravel, and marine 
animals tempest-tost and of pre-oceanic origin, out of which 
sprang oolite. Those limestones, oolitic and siliceous, are the 
basis of the soil for Grapes, and in no other, so far as I have 
experience, are they to be seen in all their wealth of flesh, juice, 
richness, and tempting colour and bloom. It is not the slightest 
use attempting to grow Grapes in clay; they need sind, or in 
bog they require lime. Our best Grapes are grown in borders 
prepared on these lines. What is the drainage but the gravel, 
the lime rubbish but the sand and lime, the bones but the fossils, 
and the loam but the vegetable debris, an artificial soil made 
corresponding to that the Vine has provided in Nature? Surface 
dressing and mulching are only what Nature gives in decayed 
vegetable matter annually fallen. 
Site. —The Vine if left to itself will run along the ground, 
forming aerial roots from the canes or rods after they become 
ripe, and these become true roots—at least, they send up matter 
for the support of the Vine from the soil. It is like any other 
climber - viz., runs along the ground until it finds something to 
clamber by, and then begins to ascend and rear its head, holding 
fast by the tendrils. It therefore needs support, and there are 
house walls ; the only thing is that they be exposed to the sun. 
It may climb over rocks in its native wilds and so get shelter, 
warmth, and light, that I know not ; in this country it requires 
all the warmth and light the sun affords. The aspect should be 
south. It is well to note that I saw ripe Royal Muscadine Grapes 
on an east and west aspect in 1886. Some on a west aspect 
ripened better than some on a south wall. The former neither 
lacked thinning of the bunches nor berries, but the latter lacked 
both, and whilst the thinned bunches were useful fruit the 
unthinned were worthless. Site, therefore, is not everything, 
cultivation must be taken into account. If the house have a 
projecting roof it will to some extent throw off rain ; not a great 
evil in this country, as the drier the foliage the more able is it to 
perform its assimilating functions; besides, when the fruit is 
ripening it requires to be dry. The projection is also a source of 
warmth, arresting the passage of heat upward. Such walls are 
drier and warmer. The site should also be high. Houses are 
now built so that the floor line is above, not as in old houses 
below the surface level— i.e., the ground floor line is so high that 
a terrace and steps have to be made. Such are best. The 
terrace can be made into a border for the Vines. The width can 
be such as to admit of its being covered with glass and a cool 
house formed, in which Grapes can be grown better than against 
a wall, as the sun heat can be husbanded, and the glass house is 
an advance on the wall with projecting eaves or a wide coping, 
as the last is an advance on the wall, the coping of which projects 
little or is flush with the wall surface. Such a site will be high 
and dry, and this is better than making an excavation, putting in 
drainage, and bringing fresh soil. 
Appliances. —Now we have the site and the wall we decide 
to grow outdoor Grapes under glass, but artificial heat is not 
necessary. Jf the wall is to be covered with glass the brickwork 
should be wired, as it admits of the readier training or regula¬ 
tion of the Vine growths and nailing damages a wall considerably. 
The wires should be fixed about three-quarters of an inch from 
the wall, not more, and the nearer the better if the tying material 
can be got between the wire and the wall The wires may be 
about 7 inches apart— i.e., in a line with every other course of 
br cks, employing eyes, terminal holdfasts, straining holdfasts, 
and No. Id galvanised wire. Any handy labourer can fix the 
wires, and the trellises should be 16 inches from the glass. If 
the wall has no projecting eaves or coping, then it must or rather 
would be better with one—a coping of glass Properly fixed it 
will be safe, but some are so light and the iron not galvanised 
that they are fragile and the iron rusts, which disturbs the 
, putty and away goes the glass, or if held in by zinc or other 
