i 
[ July 7; 1887. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
tions to .those already obtained. They are all seedlings raised in 
January, 1886, were planted out in the beds which produced such a 
grand display last summer, carefully selected and assorted, and potted 
for exhibition and stock this season. Another series of seedlings early 
raised this year have been just planted in the beds for the present sea¬ 
son’s outdoor display, and as 100,000 have been so accommodated, it 
can be imagined that there will be something to be seen in a few weeks’ 
time. The main portion of the ground near the road contains 50,000 
plants, the beds being at right angles with the road instead of parallel 
as last year, with a few plants of the variegated Maize in the centre to 
yelieve the colours and improve the general effect. 
Messrs, J. Laing & Co. have done valuable work in several depart¬ 
ments, but they conferred a boon on cultivators when they took the 
Tuberous Begonia in hand. —Visitor. 
VINE BORDERS AND UNORTHODOX PRUNING. 
1 am indebted to Mr. Abbey for another review, not so elaborate as 
the former one that I had the pleasure to acknowledge, nor, perhaps, 
so perspicuous; but he has no doubt done his best to prove me wrong in 
my advocacy of long-pruning Vines under certain specified conditions; 
and not only so, but for my frankly giving whatever credit there might 
be due to border influences in improving the Grapes referred to. I take 
that as a compliment, and have not the slightest objection to being made 
a victim in such a case. 
Mr. Abbey is a very clever man. He evidently knows more about 
Vines he lias never seen than I do Who have examined them as carefully 
and critically as my eyesight and mental state permitted ; and perhaps 
1 may add, the examination was made in broad daylight. If ever 1 
envied a man it must be Mr. Abbey. I have been inspecting Vines, 
studying Vines, working amongst Vines for I scarcely know how many 
years, and trying in every way to understand them, not only generally 
but the individual peculiarities of peculiar Vines, and yet here I am 
humbled to the dust by my incapacity. It is a misfortune that I must 
bear as well as I can. Of one thing I have no hope, and that is of 
understanding more about anything I have never seen than of what I 
have examined. I am no match for Mr. Abbey in that respect, and 
quietly take a back seat. 
As my signature indicates, in what I write now and then I simply 
give the teachings of experience. I record results, and as far as Is 
ascertainable, the practice that ltd to them. If I find barren Vines 
made fruitful by a small departure from professional routine, I am apt— 
it may be presumptuous—to think the orthodox methods of orthodox 
men may possibly be a little faulty. Mr. Abbey is very orthodox, even 
severely so, judging from his critique; theoretical and scientific too—that 
seems apparent. I have met several scientific men in my time, who 
were great in theory and all the ologies. I always hoped they were 
happy, but when I have found them labouiing to prove that something 
that actually is could not be, I have preferred the experience that was 
productive to the philosophy that was barren. 
Mr. Abbey will perhaps allow me to ex[ress my suspicion of his 
having a scientific bee in his bonnet on this question of Vine-pruning. 
It seems to me tolerably clear that he lacks some experience on the 
process to which 1 have directed attention—experience that some good 
Grape-growers have profited by. Has Mr. Abbey ever heard of Mr. 
Henderson of Cole Orton Hall ? I daresay he has. Has he seen the 
medals won for Grapes by that fine old gardener 1 Perhaps not, I have. 
It was a wonderful display, possibly unequalled. I have seen the Vines, 
too, that produced the Grapes that won the medals. Possibly Mr. Abbey 
has not. I hope at least he did not inspect them after pruning, or his 
nervous system might have received a great shock, for, sad to say, from 
his point of view, they were pruned on the unorthodox system that I 
have had the audacity to advocate and which Mr. Abbey condemns. “ Oh,’ 
but our friend saj’s, “ such pruning is contrary to science, the extension 
making loose bunches, badly set, stoneless berries, Grapes deficient in 
colour, not finished and shanked.” That is his verdict on Vines pruned 
in the free manner described. But against that dictum are the medals, 
including the only £20 one I believe ever offered and won for Grapes. 
1 am an. old-fashioned believer in success, and take it to be more 
expressive of good treatment than philosophical argument with nothing 
tangible at the end of it except a good signature. 
Mr. Abbey is great in big words. They are enough to frighten a 
young and timid man ; but luckily I do not happen to be either very 
young or nervously timid, so can look at them calmly in all their 
imposing array—assimilation and alimentation, and elaboration, and 
solidification, and nitrogenisation, and organisation, and mineralisation 
—all in one article. I have altered the terminals a little of some of 
them for the sake of euphony, but they are all there on page 526. They 
arc almost ponderous enough to shake the fruit off Vines that were not 
pruned on the orthodox system. But they were not uttered when Mr. 
Henderson was winning prizes against all comers with, Grapes that 
ought to have been loose, irregular, badly coloured, and shanked, 
according to the erudite deductions of Mr. Abbey. I am quite sure he 
wanted me to “ review ” his review, and I am trying to oblige him as 
well as I can. 
Since writing the above I have found a reference in the Journal to 
the Cole Orton Grapes which is perhaps worth quot ing :— 
“Entering the walled garden, which is about two acres, we see the 
vineries on the south wall, and could not resist the involuntary mental 
inquiry, Are these the structures which for a quarter of a century pro¬ 
duced the Grapes which won so many prizes and medals at the Royal 
Horticultural, Royal Botanic, and other Societies’ shows? The houses 
are neither large, lengthy, nor lofty, but just such commonplace erections 
as were placed in ordinary gardens half a century ago, and the Vines are 
certainly as old-fashioned as the houses. Their gaunt stems rise from 
the ground, and their branches are trained ‘anyway,’ one Vine covering 
a roof and the shoots disposed according to the one governing condition 
that the foliage can have light. They are pruned, too, on ‘ no principle, 
as some might call it, yet on the principle of selecting and cutting to 
the best eyes, let them be situated where they may. That is how, so far 
as regards training and pruning, Mr. Henderson has ‘ swept the boards 
on so many occasions by the splendid quality and superb finish of his 
Grapes, it may be urged that this mode of culture is without 1 system, 
but rather should it be regarded as the fruit-producing and prize-winning 
system of which Mrs. Henderson, with just and commendable pride, did 
what the veteran did not care to do —gave abundant proof by such a 
display of gold medals as have probably never been won by otic man. 
Mr. Henderson showed until he was tired of showing, and won until he 
was tired of winning, but he grows good Grapes by liis old ‘ no system 
mode of culture, and on the same old Vines, 
“ But also in worse than these old houses, or at least in a structure still 
more unlikely and uninviting, have some of the conquering Grapes been 
produced. And now I am going to state something wonderful, almost 
incredible, yet true. At the end of the vineries is an old brick pit. It 
was once a Pine pit heated by dung, the bottom being arched forming a 
chamber beneath in which to place manure. Thirty years ago Mr. Hen¬ 
derson converted this brick frame (for that is what it is) into a vinery 
by placing in it a little more than a foot of soil and planting with Vines, 
the canes being trained near the glass. The pit is now heated by a hot- 
water-pipe (no bottom heat), the lights push up and down—there are 
twelve of them —and the bed in which the Vines (seven) are planted is 
7 feet wide. It is from this homely pit that the aristocratic Grapes have 
come. And now for the marvel—this twelve-light put has produced 
Grapes which have won prizes of the value of £300. Is not this an 
achievement unparalleled intlib annals of Grape culture ? Eleven pounds 
of fruit to the square yard of glass is the annual produce of this pit. 
The canes are trained ‘any way,’ and pruned as before to the 1 best eyes. 
The wood is stout and exceedingly short-jointed, and the foliage in 
October possessed the thick leathery texture of that of the Fig. It is 
hardly necessary to say that these Vines have been top-dressed and fed 
with the right food, and in right quantity, and at the right time.” 
Seize on that word “ top dressing,” Mr. Abbey, and make the best of 
it. Every sensible man does the best he can for the Vines in his charge ; 
but the great fact remains that the unorthodox pruning did not prevent 
the finest crops of the best Grapes being produced ; and Mr. Henderson 
told me he was quite certain that he could not have produced such a 
weight of fine fruit if pruning had been conducted on the rule-of-thumb 
system that is called scientific, whereas in instances innumerable where 
close pruning is rigidly adhered to regardless of the condition of the 
Vines it is exactly the reverse, for it is thoughtless, foolish, wasteful, and 
barbarous. _ . ■ 
If Mr. Sanders was wrong in his method of pruning old Vines at 
The Firs, the change resulting in such marked improvement in the 
estimation of all who saw them', Mr. Henderson must have been wrong 
also; but I am fully convinced both were right. Mr. Sanders in my 
opinion acted very wisely in doing what he could in dressing the border, 
and abo in not closely spturring his Vines ; and here let me remind Mr. 
Abbey that he is totally at fault in the assumption that the top-dressing 
on the outside six-foot border influenced the rooting of the Vines from 
the “ collar,” for there is a wall between the stems and the lime 
dressing. It is sometimes better to see after all than to found an 
argument on a guess, and that a wrong one. 
Mr. Abbey has conveniently overlooked a statement in the article he 
criticises that demonstrates the advantages of long over close spur- 
pruning much more conclusively than the Vines do that he concludes 
have been “rejuvenated.” It is true they have been greatly improved, 
and mainly by the change in pruning ; but we will pass to a small 
house with no outside border to improve, and the roof covered with an 
old Muscat Vine. On some parts of that Vine close pruning was 
adhered to, but not all, and where it was not there the best Grapes hang 
unmistakeably. But Mr. Abbey had perhaps better not go and see them, 
for fear he should witness the breakdown of his argument ; still if he 
would like to run the risk, I shall be glad to accompany him if we can 
arrange for an outing together. I forget, though, it does not appear to 
be necessary for him to inspect the Vines, he knows all about them 
without going to that trouble ; but I wonder why he so complacently 
ignored a statement of fact showing that the improvement of the crop 
on the Vine in question was the result of a change in pruning, and in 
pruning alone. 
I have stated as clearly as I am able to state anything, that when 
Vines root freely near the surface of a good border, and the growths are 
trained thinly and the foliage kept clean, that they bear admirably on 
the close pruning system, and 1 have been particular to advise an ad¬ 
herence to the method that is satisfactory. It is only where there are 
no results, or bad results, from the existing rule-of-thumb routine that 
a change is advocated—a change that cannot do harm, and which I 
know in many cases has doubled, and much more than doubled, the pre¬ 
vious crop of Grapes the first, season, nothing whatever having been 
done to tiic roots of the Vines. With the roots under control arid not 
neglected I have pruned Vines as closely as they could be pruned for 
years, and had Grapes that no one grumbled at; but at another time I 
have had Vines under my charge where border renovation was positively 
