2?6 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ September 29, 1892. 
sufficient has been said to show that this bed is well worthy of the 
reputation it has attained ; and I will finish this little article by 
asking all visitors to the Abbey Park not to miss the subtropical 
garden, and above all the succulents.—W. Bell. 
FUNCTIONS OF VINE LEAVES. 
Mr. Dunkin argues well, and with great fairness. Evidently 
he is fully convinced of the soundness of his own theories, but he 
does not advance sufficient evidence in support of them to make 
me doubt the correctness of my own conclusions, however much 
they may be at variance with what experts have adduced. He 
takes it too much for granted that it is not possible to colour 
Grapes properly if the foliage beyond the bunches is not in a clean 
healthy state. Had he paid me a visit this season I could have 
shown him Madresfield Court as black as Sloes, and carrying good 
bloom, immediately over a hot flue, and red spider unavoidably in 
the ascendant. He would also have seen bunches with only a 
single primary leaf and two secondary ones that had larger berries 
than others where three, four, and five leaves had been left, the 
finish being about equal in each case. Who has not seen bunches 
left on a leading growth that had formed most disappointingly 
small berries, the finish also being nothing better than could be 
seen on short laterals ? This may be an extreme case, but it is 
what first set me thinking. If growths 3 feet or 4 feet long thus 
robbed bunches instead of furnishing them with an extra good 
supply of elaborated sap, is it wide of the mark to conclude that it 
is possible to be too liberal in the matter of leaving primary leaves 
beyond the bunches ? Those remarks on the functions of Yine 
leaves were penned long before they appeared in print. As 
far as the early and successional house is concerned my further 
experiments tend to corroborate my theories, and the late house 
still further strengthens them. The heaviest bunch of Gros 
Colman in the late vinery under my charge has no primary leaves 
beyond it, and only what secondary leaves have formed on the 
freely stopped sub-lateral growths. At present there is every 
prospect of this bunch colouring equally as well as the rest, but if 
it does not then I will readily admit I have made a mistake. 
Mr. Dunkin writes concerning the advisability of allowing more 
primary leaves to form and sub-laterals to grow more unre¬ 
strictedly, much as though the practice was the making of some 
Vines and the salvation of the others. In describing what he 
saw a few years ago in a now famous vinery, he quite forgot to 
state how far apart the rods were trained, and I cannot help think¬ 
ing he slightly over-estimated the weight of the crops produced. 
If the practice of leaving several leaves beyond the bunches, and 
of allowing the sub-laterals a free growth is to become general, 
then must those who adopt it be prepared to train their rods from 
5 feet to 6 feet apart, and larger houses ought also to be the rule. 
Mr. Dunkin mentioned what he has seen practised with such good 
results, and is such a firm believer in the efficacy of the plan of allow¬ 
ing the Vines to grow far more freely than is usually done, that he 
will be surprised to learn the Vines in another famous vinery not 
unknown to him, and which have been for the pa-»t ten years or 
more treated exactly on the same lines he has described, have “ gone 
wrong.” They are not failures by any means, but no one could 
call them successes this season. As a matter of fact, this free growth 
of Vines may easily be overdone, and its value over-estimated. If 
regarded as a mere detail in an intelligent round of treatment it 
may answer well enough, but do not attach too much importance 
to it. In careless hands it mav, perhaps, prove a “ snare and a 
delusion.” If it increases root-action it also necessitates more 
watering and more feeding, the greater expanse of foliage evapo¬ 
rating large quantities of moisture, while the borders soon become 
impoverished. Its adoption, therefore, means fewer Vines or 
rods, and fewer bunches, and greatly increases the labour and 
responsibility of the cultivator. I am treating on the subject now 
from a gardener’s point of view, and not from that of a grower of 
prize bunches. 
What I maintain is that Vines can be kept in admirable health 
and fully capable of producing heavy crops of superior produce 
when kept constantly stopped on the old lines, very little super¬ 
fluous foliage being left. What with the foliage on the fruiting 
laterals and that on laterals between them, I hold that there is 
ample to meet all the requirements of the case. I have heard it 
repeatedly asserted that Vines are at their best when six or seven 
years old, their decadence soon after setting in. 1 can understand 
this being the case when the borders have been recklessly and 
early exhausted, principally or largely in the development of 
growth that has to be cut away, but it is not so where the treat¬ 
ment is more rational. The tenth crop of bunches on the Vines 
in our late house is much the best we have ever had, yet the 
stopping has been, according to Mr. Dunkin’s views, too severe. 
The colouring will be satisfactory enough, but something else 
besides good leaves is responsible for that.—W. Iggulden. 
DISCUSSION ON APPLES. 
Apples in the North. 
The behaviour of fruit trees this year has been decidedly erratic, 
and the Apple not the least so. It has been quite common to hear of 
gardens in the same locality with the widely different reports of “ No 
Apples ” and “ An abundant crop of Apples.” At the same time it is 
necessary to be guarded in receiving reports too literally, as so-called 
poor crops early in the season have swelled up into very good ones. In 
our own case the crop looked so very poor and unpromising that trees 
abundantly laden were only slightly thinned in order that the most 
might be made of what we had. But thinly set trees have done so well 
that the crop on the whole is a fairly good one, and freely set trees 
might just as well have been freely thinned. 
The teaching of the present year once again emphasises the fact that 
young trees in robust health are the ones to depend upon for a certain 
fruit supply, and old trees are as a rule unworthy of dependance in any 
but a good fruit year. That, of course, is not the teaching we were 
brought up to, but it certainly is what the trees themselves proclaim. 
Again, it becomes palpably evident that the few select sorts are those to 
depend upon. If they do not bear an overflowing crop they set a 
sufficient number of fruits, and that in itself is a great deal when the 
chance of any crop whatever is a matter of uncertainty. Then I thmk 
it is abundantly evident that each district must choose i f s own sorts, 
and from these each garden. The peculiarities of soil have a striking 
influence. There are Apples which succeed only on heavy soils, and 
others which do best on light soils ; while there are also soils of a happy 
medium character which produce any kind of Apple to perfection. No 
doubt also the individual peculiarities of some really good Apples 
require to be studied. Keswick Codlin is an example of a sort which 
may be spur-pruned year after year, and continue to thrive and be 
fruitful under the treatment. Irish Peach, on the other hand, prefers 
to be left alone, and uader such conditions produces twins and triplets 
of beautiful fruit on the extreme points of its wil owy shoots. Others, 
again, of which Peasgood’s Nonesuch may be mentioned as typical, are 
not averse to very drastic and recurrent root-prunings, while occasionally 
we find a sort assume a fruitful habit under a system of bodily 
removal. 
As a rule, it does not pay to cultivate varieties requiring special 
treatment to induce fruitfulness, and it is wise to select only those 
which give the best returns with the least trouble. Generally these are 
also the best sorts. However, all young trees are improved by careful 
root-pruning as well as by removal. There is no good reason why 
either process should check the healthy growth of the trees, for if pro¬ 
perly gone about it will not do so ; but it will induce a more fruitful 
habit, and when once a young tree gets into a free-bearing habit, so 
long as overcropping is avoided, the habit will be perpetuated. A good 
time to prune the roots with good results is at the present time. If they 
are bare and long they are transformed into short, fibrous-bearing roots, 
and if they are already of a fibrous nature that condition is accentuated. 
An abundant crop of young rootlets is made before growth finally 
ceases—that is to say, ceases to all outward appearance, and the benefit 
to the tree will be apparent in the strong healthy blossom which results. 
The add tion of fresh material for the young roots to lay hold of is of 
much value. Any fresh material is good, and the degree of goodness 
must of course depend on the ability of the grower to secure the best he 
can ; but because one cannot secure loam, that is no reason why other 
soil should not be used, such, for instance, as the best contained in the 
general “old compost” depot, which is often as valuable as loam. 
The harvesting of the crop is a detail which will engage most 
attention for some time to come. Late va'ieties ought always to be 
allowed to hang as long as possible. Some of ours are left till November, 
but we are not o'ten troubled with frosts before the middle of that 
month, a climatic condition which may not occur in every district. 
Where birds are numerous, and much given to fruit-eating, it sometimes 
become-i a necessity to gather the earlier ripening sorts btfore they are 
quite ready in order to save the crop. In some seasons we have to do 
this ; but the better plan, where it can be carried out, is to go over the 
trees at intervals and gather the larger and better ripened fruits first, 
allowing the others a longer period on the trees to swell and finish. 
This system is not only productive of a larger size of fruit, but it is at 
the same time a means of relieving the trees, and also extends the season 
of any particular sort harvested in this manner. 
It is a'most too early to decide as to what to plant, but it may be of 
interest to add a note as to the varieties found most worthy of cul¬ 
tivating. I may begin with Early Julyan, which combines good 
cropping and cooking qualities with earliness. I like Keswick Codlin 
as a really reliable sort, one which in the worst of seasons bears a crop 
of fruit of good size and excellent quality, while the tree is absolutely 
healthy, and on our soil one of the few varieties which never show a 
trace of canker. Last spring I selected this for a pergola as being the 
best for the purpose. In a select collection I would pass oyer the 
beautiful Ducbess of Oldenburg, as it keeps very badly, often in fact 
decaying during wet weather while still hanging on the tree. I would 
choose in preference to Lord Suffield for a light soil, on which it does 
not succeed, the newer Lord Grosvenor. This is not quite free from 
canker, but after testing it for some years 1 find it stands out so pro¬ 
minently from all others as a robust sort, combining extraordinary 
