journal of horticulture and cottage gardener. 
September 27, 1804. 
20Z 
acute ” observers than myself there are I am sure, and abler pens 
to express their thoughts ; hence I have, as previously intimated, 
kept to facta rather than subtle reasoning. The latter is, for me, 
a worker, more suitable for winter nights than summer days.— 
E. K., Dublin. _ 
This battle is being waged cording to the traditional method 
of “ one down t’other come on.” No sooner has an antagonist 
subsided into silence than another jumps up to attack me. Instead 
of my inviting them to “ tread on the tail of my coat,” as asserted 
by “ Azoto ” (page 274), it is they who run after and attack me 
whenever I am retiring from the conflict. “ Azoto’s ” facetious 
allusion to “ lunar influences ” is, however, more applicable to 
himself and others who believe in ripened wood than to the 
sceptics. Canning once remarked that a man who could talk about 
dry champagne was capable of saying anything. Had the ripe 
wood superstition existed in his day he would doubtless have 
included its devotees in that scathing cynicism. If anyone was 
required to come forward and knock the bottom clean out of this 
fallacy, “ Azoto ” has done it most effectually. 
In the first place Grape-growing out of doors has hardly yet 
passed the experimental stages, for, according to Mr. Pettigrew’s 
own showing, their vintages appear to have been commercially 
successful only about once in every six years ! But my opposition 
to this ripe wood nonsense is based on experience gained from 
the cultivation of ordinary fruits, not that of exotics carried on in 
out of the way parts of these islands. As it happen^, however, 
Mr. Pettigrew is so obliging as to stultify completely the adherents 
of this ripened wood theory, for in describing his system of 
culture (page 253) he says, “ When the leaves have fallen the 
canes are cut down to two or three buds, leaving mere stumps 
for producing fruiting growths another year.” Thus the supposed 
unripe (?) wood of 1879 was entirely cut away that autumn, and 
whatever Grapes were produced in 1880 were carried by young 
wood grown that season. How then can it matter whether .he 
1879 wood was ripe or unripe? Surely even “Azoto’’has not 
the hardihood to aver that those stumps or stools, from whence 
started the new wood of 1880, were not ripe, having been “planted 
as far back as 1875,” and borne fruit both in 1877 and 1878. 
The failure of the vintage in 1880 was probably due to quite 
another cause than unripened wood, viz, the long and severe 
winter of 1879-80, which lasted, with the exception of a week at 
New Year when the Tay Bridge was blown down, from November 
20th to the 6th of the following February, a more protracted 
period of cold than the great frost of 1890-1 ; 1891-2 was also a long 
trying winter, and it is worthy of note that Mr. Pettigrew’s Grape 
crop seems to have failed more or less after each. 
The year 1879, whether for good or evil, is horticulturally 
ancient history, and I cannot for the life of me comprehend why 
any adherent of the ripened wood delusion should trouble to rake 
up musty details thereof, especially when both the past and present 
seasons offer such admirable and more valuable object lessons. 
But as “Azoto,” on Mr. Pettigrew’s authority, has chosen to cry 
back 80 far, perhaps you will allow me to lay before your readers 
a few meteorological facts connected with some of these periods. 
Mr. Pettigrew is, I believe, one of Mr. Symons’ rainfall observers, 
consequently we may take his statement, that “upwards of 
44 inches ” of rain fell in 1879 at Cardiff Castle, as accurate ; but 
the Greenwich return was only 31 36 inches, their 1893 record 
being 20 12 inches, or 11 inches less; while for the present year 
the rainfall to date (September 23rd) is roughly 19 inches, show¬ 
ing that in nine months we have had nearly as large a deposit of 
moisture as for the whole of 1893. 
A still more important matter in this connection is the amount 
of sunshine registered—“ solar influence,” as “ Azoto ” amusingly 
terms it. In 1879 the sun shone for 983 hours, in 1881 1302 hours, 
in 1887 1401 hours, and in 1893 1454 hours at Greenwich. Just 
when horticulturists and agriculturists are all groaning about the 
lack of bright sunshine, a tabular comparison between last year 
and this may not be entirely without interest. Unfortunately I 
have been unable to bring my analysis quite up to date, neverthe¬ 
less the contrast is sufficiently striking. 
Sunshine at 
Greenwich. 
1893, 
1894. 
January... 
14 hours 
January... 
42 hours 
February 
• 51 „ 
February 
63 „ 
March ... 
. 155 ,, 
March ... 
133 „ 
April 
. 231 „ 
April 
123 „ 
May 
. 186 „ 
May . 
133 
June 
. 198 „ 
June 
127 „ 
July 
. 140 „ 
July . 
149 „ 
August ... 
. 188 „ 
August. 
104 ,, 
Total 
. 1163 hours 
Total 
877 hours 
Yet, notwithstanding such an immense deficit of sunshine in 
eight months, and particularly the six growing months, I find all 
fruit colouring more highly this season than last, an observation in 
which I am confirmed by “E. M.’s” note, page 272. All young 
wood, too, is unusually bard and firm, while the change of tint in 
leaves indicating that what is called “ripening of the wood” has 
occurred quite as early as last year. These are hard and obvious 
facts which it is for the old-fashioned faddists to explain away if 
they can. What we want from them is some practical proof, or 
even argument, worthy of the faith which is in them ; not wordy 
generalities or meaningless vapourisation, such as “ an invulnerable 
principle of the horticulturist’s creed ” and similar nonsense, 
which carries us nowhere. 
“ If your correspondent, “ Azoto,” will turn to page 264 of 
last week’s issue, and read the final paragraph of your leader on 
“ Facts about Fruit,” he will then discover much valuable infor¬ 
mation, showing what intelligent and scientific pruning will do for 
unproductive fruit trees. I fear, however, he will find no reference 
to “ripened wood.”—A Sceptic. 
Chrysanthemum Golden Wedding, 
I HAVE read Mr. Molyneux’s note (page 278) respecting the be¬ 
haviour of this beautiful variety, but my experience is that the cold, 
sunless summer has nothing to do with it. In fact, last season when we 
lost several plants I thought the intense heat was the cause, neither can 
I think shoots exposed to the sun “ go off ” before those less exposed. 
This season we have, or rather had, plants in various positions, and they 
were nearly all attacked with the same complaint; first one shoot, then 
number two, and finally the total collapse of whole; stimulants or 
strong manure the plants had none of. I really believe it is a disease to 
which the American kinds are peculiarly liable. Two other American 
varieties are going off in the same manner. Maud Pearson (Spalding) 
I have lost two plants out of three, and also a plant of Captain Torrens 
(Pitcher & Manda). The habit of these varieties is quite the opposite 
of Golden Wedding, being rather weak growers.— W. J. Godfrey, 
Exmouth. 
[America is a famous country for fungi among other things, and a 
fungus is the cause of the evil in question. See page 30G,] 
Like your correspondent, “ The Boy ” (page 278) I have experienced 
the same failure of the above variety. I commenced with three plants 
in the spring, and they all did as well as any variety until the first week 
in August, when I noticed the top half of the shoots and leaves go as if 
they had received an overdose of something of a very burning nature. 
I was rather puzzled to know why one shoot should go one after another 
at short intervals, until I lost the last shoot of the three plants about 
ten days ago. I quite agree in every point with Mr. E. Molyneux that 
the present season has been an adverse one to this variety, and like 
him had formed a very high opinion of it.—W. R., Eeyioood. 
My experience with this variety corresponds exactly with your cor¬ 
respondent’s on page 278. I have two plants ; on one I took the crown 
buds, and I have not one bud left. They were attacked just under the 
flower bud with a decay similar in appearance to the Tomato disease ; the 
other part of the stems then became spotted, and the leaves also decayed, 
and are now covered with a fungus, evidently a Peronospora. The other 
plant I stopped to take the terminal buds, and it looks quite healthy, not 
a spot on the stem or leaves. The buds are only just showing. It will 
be interesting to note if it takes the disease at a later stage. Evidently 
the check of the flow of sap on disbudding subjected it to this fungus, 
but it is curious that out of hundreds of varieties this one alone should 
differ from others. Mr. Agate of Havant has plants of this same 
variety, and his have gone off in the same way, showing that it is consti¬ 
tutional and not local influences that is the cause of it.—C. Orchard, 
Bemhridge, I, W. __ 
It is certainly a little consoling to And the complaints respecting 
this Chrysanthemum so general. It makes the grower feel the fault is not 
entirely his own, though I am afraid in most cases we blame ourselves par¬ 
tially for the mischief. In my own case I came to the conclusion it was 
due to over-propagation, for it will be remembered how scarce this variety 
was last spring. No doubt many persons who received it this season for 
the flrst time have been a little anxious to make the most of it. Now I 
feel convinced, had it been grown in smaller pots so as to have induced 
a woody growth, we should have been more successful, but of course we 
had no idea it was such a gross grower. I have lost two plants out of 
six growing in 9-inch pots, while I have thirty later plants. These kept 
quite healthy while they remained in 5-inch pots, but as soon as they 
were put in 7.j-iach pots the evil commenced again, and I have lots 
