August 24, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
167 
“ Arbor Day,'’ or possibly “ Arbour Day,” may yet become a 
recognised festival with old and young in Australia. 
This wholesale method of regenerating waste lands is eminently 
characteristic of a practical and pushing age, and the consideration 
of it naturally leads to the consideration of the work which has 
been effected more slowly by prescient individuals among the fore¬ 
fathers of the English-speaking people. Although Old England 
was in parts bountifully clothed by Nature with forest, there are 
many districts now presenting a charming panorama of wood, of 
field, and of lawn, which four hundred years ago more resembled 
those wastes our emigrant kinsmen are seeking to reclaim abroad. 
From the descriptions given by foreign travellers of England 
during the sixteenth century it would seem as if much of it was 
spongy, waste, and open where now the landscape delights the eye 
of the visitor in whom familiarity has not bred indifference. 
This transformation slowly effected here is being reproduced as 
though by magic in other parts of the globe, where a warmer sun 
often working upon an irrigated soil develops vegetation with 
almost twice the rapidity it does in England. We have heard of 
the wonders worked by the Mormons at Salt Lake, and these have 
been more than repeated by the settlers at Fresno and Los 
Angeles in California, and at Christchurch in New Zealand. 
Our Queen had already reigned fourteen years when the Canter¬ 
bury Pilgrims pitched their tents upon the verge of the great open 
moorlands extending for hundreds of miles at the foot of the New 
Zealand Alps. It was an immense prairie land, as large as Pied¬ 
mont, covered with nothing but coarse tussock grass, and lying 
between the ocean and a wall of snow-capped mountains. In 
summer it was often scourged by a sirocco bearing a simoom from 
end to end without encountering a tree to check its sterilising in¬ 
fluence. Now, for a radius of thirty miles around the Cathedral of 
Christchurch, the landscape is as fresh and green as that of Essex, 
beset with Willows, Poplars, Acacias, and Eucalypti, and enclosing 
dairy farms as fine as those of Holland. Anyone who had gone to 
sleep in England and awoke in a drag on the way to the “ New 
Zealand Cup ” at Lincoln outside Christchurch, in November, would 
merely imagine he had been transported to another part of England. 
Year by year the mantle of vegetation heightens, until the day 
will come when to the inhabitants near the sea the view of the 
distant mountain ranges will become invisible except by ascending 
the Cathedral spire. 
Such is the magical effect which the hand of man can produce 
by erecting a shelter of timber against the influences of unrestricted 
nature. But the beneficial influences of planting are not confined 
to fostering moisture upon dry prairie lands or even to stopping the 
pernicious drifting of sand-dunes as has been done so successfully 
on the “ Landes ” of Western France. The ameliorative effect of 
trees upon soil is far from being fully realized. The effect oc 
certain trees, such as the Eucalyptus, is medicinal and curative on 
certain miasmatous land, as we see in the reclamation which is 
being made of the Italian Campagna ; and even in our sour boggy 
soils the most curiously opposite effects can be produced. Planting 
acts in a variety of ways. It makes a dry and shifting soil stable 
and moist by intercepting sun heat and breaking the wind. It 
makes a sodden soil warmer and sweeter by absorbing much of the 
moisture and preventing the refrigerating effect caused by the 
impact of cold and drying winds. Indeed if the right kind of tree 
can be discovered there seems to be scarcely any complaint of the 
soil which planting cannot do something to cure, and we cannot but 
admire the good sense and public spirit of the United States where 
the question of afforestation is made a matter of national conscience 
and national co-operation. 
It is not generally known that in wet climates barrenness of 
the land is often due to baneful fungoid growths, which tend to 
keep it in a condition of bog. It has been noticed in the more 
northerly parts of Great Britain that often where a shelter of 
trees has been opposed to the winds striking upon a sodden sterile 
soil, the outer portion on which the full brunt of the attacks falls 
becomes covered with a mossy or lichenous growth, which curiously 
enough is absent on the interior trees where one would more 
naturally expect it. This would seem to indicate that such planta¬ 
tions operate as a kind of sieve or strainer of the spawn borne by 
the winds, and this theory is borne out by the fact that as the trees 
grow up the land behind the trees loses its mossy or boggy 
nature, and becomes capable of bearing crops and grasses. Land 
robbed of its shelter and left exposed to the winds, even when 
laid down in pasture, has been known to deteriorate rapidly, while 
that which was sheltered while lying fallow recovered much of its 
productive power. This shows that in cold and wet climates the 
action of trees can be as beneficial as it is in lands where it is hot 
and dry. Indeed, it is marvellous to reflect upon the possibilities 
which still lie before the human race in this matter, and of the 
transformation which will surely pass over the face of much of the 
earth, hitherto regarded as melancholy and useless.—M. H. 
MR. M. DAVIS. 
Having in view the doubts that have been expressed relative to 
the planters of some of the “ Goliaths of Grapedom,” and the various 
claims advanced for tracing the origin of the Vines to the ancestors 
of present day writers, we have decided that posterity shall know 
who the raiser of at least one famous Vine was, also to show what 
manner of man he is some thirty years after he inserted the cutting. 
Mr. M. Davis is undeniably the raiser of the magnificent Vine at 
Manresa House, Roehampton, and has pruned and trained it through¬ 
out its career. So far as we know there is no man living who can 
look on a similar achievement. The mere size of the Vine is some¬ 
thing to be proud of, but add to this its fine character and splendid 
condition, then public recognition of Mr. Davis’ work becomes almost 
a duty. We have certainly great pleasure in giving honour to whom 
honour is justly due in this case. Thirty years of unremitting atten¬ 
tion and cultural skill have made the Vine what it is to-day—a veritable 
FIG. 25.—ME. M. DAVIS. 
giant in the vigour of youth that produces Grapes of first-class quality, 
and would produce far more if pressure was resorted to. When in full 
bearing there is no finer sight in Grape culture to be seen near London, 
and nothing more credita’cle to any gardener. 
We do not appear to have any honours for disposal in this country 
for a lifetime of work so well done in the form in which it is repre¬ 
sented in this Vine, but honours galore have been distributed for products 
that bear no comparison with this cultural work of Mr. Davis. So far 
as we know the Manresa Vine stands alone as the finest in the world 
raised and tended by one man from the beginning until now. Mr. Davis 
is a successful grower of all kinds of fruit, and as intelligent and 
courteous as he is able. Though a very real worker, he is one of 
Nature’s gentlemen, and we have not heard of one visitor out of many 
return from Manresa gardens and express anything but high approval 
of the man and his work. Mr. Davis is an excellent type of a British 
gardener. 
NOTES BY THE WAY. 
A WEEK or two ago I expatiated mildly over the attractions of East 
Grinstead, a pleasant little town on the Surrey side of Sussex, and said 
a few words about one of its gardens. If I were to content myself with 
that a second visit could not be paid without apprehension, for there is 
that wholesome rivalry amongst the various gardeners in the district 
which does so much to keep up a high standard of work. “ And why ? 
each might say; “ haven’t I a right to be talked about as well as 
So-and-so 1 ” Dear sirs all, you have the same claim, and shall have the 
same attention, but one at a time, please ; let us go to work rnethodically. 
I chatted on the first occasion about pleasant Oakleigh with its fruit 
