JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 18, 1896. 
year and on the interest accruing, or, in Sir John Hutton’s words, 
** for every sovereign contributed in the form of wage deductions 
fths Council adds another sovereign and allows compound interest 
©n both.” 
Hach member has a separate account, and is entitled to have 
a copy of it annually in order that he may know the exact amount 
standing to his credit; but this amount is divided into two parts, 
one showing the member’s contributions and interest thereon, 
and the other the Council’s equal additions and interest accruing. 
This was rendered necessary on Parliament declining to agree 
to th© Council’s proposition to exempt the whole of the fund 
Jrora the hands of a creditor. The public (added) money was 
4bus not unnaturally protected, but not the members’ contributions. 
This division of the fund, however, affords a means of differ- 
ectiating in the repayment of monies to members under specified 
©ooditions, and which do not appear to be otherwise than 
seasonable and fair. 
The prime object of the scheme is to provide a superannuation 
fund for workmen (and women) who have spent the best years 
of their life in the service of the Council and then retire, or who 
have to do so through illness at any time. In these circum- 
at3Eces the whole amount of the accumulations of both parts of 
the fund is to be paid to the member by cheque, or in the form 
of 5ia annuity, as he may prefer ; but if a member only works for 
tijs Council till he finds a better position, and retires on finding 
on©, then only the amount of his own contributions, with interest, 
s j>aid to him not any public money ; and similarly, any member 
leaving the service of the Council through reductions or altera¬ 
tions in the establishment receives his own money with interest 
osly. There is still another very important, and also a very proper 
proviso, to the effect that if any member is discharged through 
frandy dishonesty, or misconduct, involving pecuniary loss to the 
County Council, or who retires to avoid conviction of such 
^i^eeds, he loses his right to anything; bat the Council may, 
in its discretion, make such repayments as it thinks fit, according 
to the circumstances of the case. 
On the death of a member who is entitled to the benefits of the 
vund tive full amount of his coctributions and the Council’s 
additions, with interest on both, will be paid to his representatives, 
and members have absolute power to dispose by will of all monies 
payable under the scheme. The County Council defrays all the 
expenses of management, and guarantees the full amount of all 
payments due to retiring members or their representatives under 
the rules provided for the management of the fund. 
In the parks department, with which our readers are more 
particularly interested (and it is doubtless the same in others), 
there is an evident desire to raise the status of the men employed! 
Only men who have had good training in gardens, and who can 
present testimonials of competency and unblemished character 
san BOW obtain positions on the permanent staff. This is entirely 
as it should be, but is not as it always has been. The loose methods 
of the past led to the employment of men who were not gardeners, 
and to some who were neither useful nor ornamental, and it is a 
matter of surprise that the superintendents Lave done so well as 
they have in rendering the parks so enjoyable, considering the 
msny crude and careless helpers which have found their way into 
positions which they were never qualified to fill. A chancre is 
being gradually effected, and it would seem as if the policy of the 
authorities was to obtain the services of the best men available 
and to make their positions worth keeping. To this the just and 
generous scheme, which came into operation on the first day of 
i'he present month, will directly tend, and London will be eventually 
the gainer. 
How glad would many gardeners be in various parts of the 
lountry if they could feel themselves firmly settled in their 
positions, and contributors to a fund so safe and so certain to be 
beneficial as the one in question is sure to be to those who are 
anembers in virtue of the positions they occupy. The nearest 
approach to it of anything in the gardening world is the splendid 
Society much overnamed, and by far too many underrated, the 
“United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society.” It is a 
pity its name cannot be shortened, and its members increased a 
thousandfold, for it is one of the safest, soundest, and best of 
provident societies open to gardeners in all parts of the kingdom. 
If a thousand proprietors of gardens could see their way to 
deduct say 6d. a week from the wages of their gardeners, and add 
another fid. or even a guinea a year of their own, they would set 
the ball rolling in a good direction, and obtain and retain the 
services of good, steady, prudent men, who would work the more 
cheerfully through the provision thus made for the demands of 
the future. 
EXPRESS GRAPE GROWIKG. 
Your article in last week’s issue of the Journal of Horticulture 
on page 305, and the accompanying photograph on page 315, under 
the above heading, must prove an interesting subject to many who 
still hold adverse views on the early cropping of Vines, and which 
certainly ought to convince many gardeners of great ability who 
still cling to the old theory, that a Vine must of necessity have a 
few years to become sufficiently established before it is capable of 
producing a crop of first class Grapes. From my own experience I 
have proved that Vines are capable of producing enormous crops 
of Grapes at an early stage of their existence under good 
management. 
It may sound somewhat egotistical on my part to give you my 
own practice and experience, but I trust that it may be the means 
of encouraging some at least to leave the old beaten track, and try 
the newer method, which I and many others have proved to be 
sound. I have planted Vines in nearly every month in the year 
with most satisfactory results, but to enter into details would be 
impossible without trespassing too much on your valuable space, 
and I will therefore in the meantime confine myself to one particular 
case. 
In the month of July, 1887, we erected a lean-to house, 72 feet 
by Ifi feet, and planted it the following month (August 11th and 
12th) with Vines raised from eyes in the month of March of the 
same year, and it may surprise some to know that the Vines were 
allowed to remain in the 3-inch pots in which they were rooted; 
many of them were not more than 18 inches in length, and 
certainly not stronger than a good straw. Many will condemn 
this as bad practice (so do I), as the Vines should have received 
better treatment. Well, the fact of the matter was simply this. 
We did not contemplate building this house until the following 
season, but after the Grape-thinning was completed a stable and 
other outbuildings had to be erected, and the vinery was run up at 
the same time, and planted with twenty-eight permanent Vines 
(Muscat of Alexandria), along the front. A row of supernumeraries 
was planted fi feet from the front and carried up to the wires, 
and the same number on the back wall, and by the end of the 
season the whole house was completely covered with abundance of 
splendid well-ripened wood. 
The permanent Vines were cut back, leaving about 7 feet of 
cane, and the supernumeraries were in some instances left nearly 
the whole length of the rafter according to the strength of the 
canes, and the Vines on the back wall treated in a similar manner. 
The Vines were allowed to start into growth in the month of 
March. The following year, 1888, the whole broke strongly with 
the exception of three or four of the Gros Colman, which did not 
break so evenly at the base. The permanent Vines were allowed 
to carry seven bunches each, the Colmans (supernumerary) ten and 
twelve bunches each. Muscats were all cut in the month of 
September for market and exhibition, and averaged lbs. per 
bunch. The Colmans, requiring a little longer time to finish, were 
allowed to hang another month, and weighed Ij- lb. on an average. 
These Muscat Vines have borne heavy crops of Grapes every year 
since, and to-day they are in splendid form and as promising as 
ever. Thus in thirteen months from the time of planting, and 
nineteen months from the time the eyes were rooted, these Vines 
carried and finished well a heavy crop of fruit.—W. Innes, Derby. 
EMPLOYERS AND GARDENERS. 
{Concluded from page 307.) 
Employers, of course, are subject to the same natural variations 
of temperament and natures as gardeners, and I am aware there are 
many cases in which the gardener has nothing to complain of. 
Still, there are others where the lot of the gardener might be much 
