846 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 20, 1892. 
Mansfield. These were cut from Vines fifteen years old, the 
variety being Black Hamburgh. The Vines in this house and two 
others in the same range have been vastly improved in a few 
seasons by growing plenty of foliage, in many instances there 
being four and five leaves beyond the bunch, lateral growth also 
being allowed to extend freely. No liquid manure nor artificial 
fertilisers have been applied during the last two years, but now 
that plenty of active roots have been made feeding will in the 
future have attention. The whole of these Vines have this year 
carried a crop which many cultivators would think they could not 
possibly colour. Neither would they have done so if the shoots 
had been stopped in the way Messrs. Iggulden and Swan advise. 
Several of the Vines in question are now carrying 50 lbs. of 
perfectly black Grapes, and in one case I believe the weight will 
reach nearer 60 than 50. The heaviest bunch on this Vine weighs 
about 6 lbs. 
The weight of crop produced on the young Vines under Mr. 
Swan’s charge is a really good cultural achievement, provided the 
Grapes were well coloured. That is the vital point. It is all 
very well to state what has been done with young Vines when 
closely stopped for a few years. The boundless vigour of youth 
enables them to build up strength and produce good returns, not 
because of, but in spite of, unnatural suppression ; but let this 
close stopping be continued for ten years, then what is the result ? 
Are not Vines in a feeble state incapable of perfecting anything 
like the weight of crop they should do ? Another point which 
Mr. Swan seems to have overlooked is that up to the present time 
root action, and consequently good leaf production, has been fully 
maintained by the continual growth of the leaders of his Vines. 
This has more than compensated for the close stopping of the 
laterals. Thoughtful readers will see at once that he weakens 
rather than strengthens his cause by drawing comparisons between 
Vines, Cucumbers, and Melons. There is so little analogy between 
them ; the last two being grown as annuals their permanent welfare 
has not to be considered, and in the case of Cucumbers old growths 
are being continually cut away and young ones laid in. 
Mr. Swan must have been content with very poor crops of 
Cucumbers, if by close stopping he can obtain “double the quantity 
of fruit off a given space.” Any individual who can show so 
simple a way to double the produce, and therefore at least treble 
the profit on the growth of this popular edible, confers a real benefit 
upon the entire community, a benefit which should establish his 
fame at once, and quickly lead him on to fortune, if the tempting 
bait he holds before our eyes does not vanish like a bubble and 
leave no trace behind. In regard to Melons I am well aware that 
the fruits will swell to a large size if no growth is left beyond it, 
but the practice is a thoroughly bad one to follow as a regular 
detail of culture. Numbers of plants carrying fine crops of Melons 
utterly collapse every year just as the fruit begins colouring, for 
the simple reason that root-action is sluggish on account of per¬ 
sistent stopping, and even when they manage to ripen their fruit 
after a struggle the really fine flavour and deep flesh of a well- 
grown Melon are absent. At no stage of a Melon’s growth should 
the whole of the spring shoots be stopped. The extension system 
of growing Melons may not be so well adapted to the require¬ 
ments of gardens generally as that usually practised, but Mr. 
Iggulden is well aware of the great superiority in the flavour and 
the depth of flesh obtained in Melons cut from plants which 
give a succession of fruit throughout the season. 
In conclusion I will express the firm conviction that the surest 
way to induce Mr. Swan to join the ranks of those who believe in 
the extension system of Vine growing, is to ask him to persistently 
follow the close stopping system with his Vines which have begun 
so well. In the course of a few years he will then have to do one 
of three things—be content with inferior Grapes, allow greater 
freedom of growth, or root out the Vines and plant fresh ones. 
—H. Dunkin. 
[The five leaves sent by Mr. Dunkin weighed 6£ ozs., the 
heaviest turning the scale at oz. This is the heaviest Vine 
leaf we have yet received. The leaf stalks were also slightly 
thicker than those of Mr. Swan. The increase in weight of the 
leaves from Warwick Castle was due to their greater expanse— 
14 inches against 12—and they were not quite so thick and dark in 
colour as from the young Vines. Their weight, however, indicates 
their substance and power. They are wonderful leaves as perfected 
by old Vines and undoubtedly good management.] 
EDUCATION IN GARDENING. 
Early in the present year we announced our intention of 
presenting a limited number of large silver medals to gardeners 
for the best essay on gardening subjects proposed to them through 
the secretaries of the respective horticultural or mutual improve¬ 
ment societies of which they are members. The results have been 
very satisfactory. Two of the essays sent in were so good that we 
unhesitatingly awarded medals for both of them. On opening the 
envelopes containing the names of the writers one of them proved 
to be Mr. Thomas Garnett, The Gardens, St. John’s, Wakefield, 
and the other Mr. E. D. Smith, Walkley, Sheffield. We have 
pleasure in publishing the photograph of Mr. Garnett as the senior 
essayist. He has long taken interest in educational matters, and 
has read papers before the Wakefield Paxton Society, of which he 
is co secretary with Mr. Fallas. Mr. Garnett is a close student, 
an excellent practical gardener, and a worthy and respected man. 
We publish this week the first instalment of his essay on “ Education 
in Gardening,” and on its completion that written by Mr. Smith 
will follow. The latter essayist is a comparatively young man, 
and may be expected to contribute worthily to the literature of 
gardening. 
Mr. Garnett’s Essay. 
British horticulture is what our best practitioners have made it, 
a subject worthy of our pride in it. The practical work and its 
splendid results, as exemplified in our best gardening establish¬ 
ments, apparently leaves little room for any better system of 
education and training of gardeners ; but in this age of educational 
progress we cannot afford to remain stationary. Degrees of 
efficiency amongst individuals are inevitable, and we are compelled 
to admit that there are many gardeners who do not take special 
interest in the profession. When once they have been taught to 
to do the work to their way of thinking nothing further is 
required. This is simply practical work, which makes no progress 
in any direction. Gardeners and gardening are bound together so 
that when any improvement is made in either both must progress. 
It is the inert unleavened mass that requires moving, and we shall 
have to trust to the educational lever on the coming generation of 
gardeners to push horticulture on to the higher level to which it is 
capable of attaining. 
The open road to this progress lies in the direction of an 
education, blending together the best possible acquaintance of the 
present with the more exact knowledge of those laws which 
govern plant life. Call it science or call it common sense. The 
progress and developments made within the last few years in plant 
physiology affecting the very spirit of gardening opens out wide 
fields of advancement in methods and results, which it would be 
folly to ignore. To the general present-day gardener the word 
“science” is a well-known bugbear. But this arises from hasty 
conclusions on the relationship of practice to theory. It goes 
without cavil that as scientific, or what is understood by gardeners 
as theoretic knowledge, becomes disseminated and acted upon, it 
gradually passes over into the region of practice. It is utter folly 
to boast of practical knowledge and yet to persistently ignore the 
fact that it is neither more nor less than proven theory emanating 
from scientific deductions. 
That the general principles of gardening emanating from this 
source are on a sound basis is abundantly proven by the high state 
of perfection to which gardening has attained. We may therefore 
safely take it for a rule that our most successful gardeners are those 
who consciously or unconsciously are working out in their every¬ 
day practice the laws which govern plant life, as interpreted by 
our eminent plant physiologists. Who, knowing anything of this 
subject, dare predict the results which may be achieved in the 
future when the general body of gardeners becomes leavened with 
this knowledge, supplemented by the present and improved 
methods accruing, of imparting information to each other ? In 
making these propositions we know there is a limit to the acquire¬ 
ment of such knowledge by the most persevering students, but to 
do so and apply the lessons to be derived from it does not require, 
as many seem to think, that the gardener shall become a walking 
encyclopoedia of all the sciences. The wave of public opinion on 
elementary and technical education which has swept like a tide over 
the country, culminating in the passing of the last Education 
Act, which, supplemented by liberal grants from County Councils 
and other authorities, the employment of lecturers on “ Horticul¬ 
tural subjects,” and now the inclusion of “ Horticulture ” on a wide 
and comprehensive basis as one of the specific subjects in the last 
issued “ Government Education Code,” is broad and sound enough 
to be used as the stepping stone to the higher education needed to 
this end. We are now on the threshold of a new era in horticul¬ 
tural progress, and thus any discussion throwing light upon the 
subject at this juncture ought to prove of especial value. 
Subjects to Study. 
Hitherto the working class population has been the natural and 
general source of the supply of gardeners. It must be admitted, 
therefore, that those drawn from this source are likely to possess in a 
superior degree the requisite characteristics best meeting and suiting 
