PAXTON’S 
HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 
JULY, 1836. 
HORTICULTURE. 
ON THE COILING SYSTEM OF VINES. 
We have long had an impartial eye upon the various articles and 
letters written pro and con respecting this system. There is much to 
be deprecated in the spirit which the arguers on both sides have 
assumed, for—as is but too common — a great degree of acrimony 
has been indulged in, which in no possible way can be productive of 
good. 
We are quite confident that the originator of the coiling system— 
Mr. Mearns, gardener to his Grace the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck 
—conscientiously believed, that, in promulgating his own opinions, he 
should impart a knowledge of facts which could not fail to do essential 
service, and impart pleasure as well as knowledge, to every cultivator 
of the vine. But they who best know this worthy and greatly expe¬ 
rienced gardener, are well aware that his enthusiasm is pre-eminent; 
what he does—what he espouses—he does and follows up “with all 
his might.” This highly-wrought spirit sustains a man while strug¬ 
gling in an ocean of difficulties, and frequently bears him up : he thus 
comes off victorious, and “ more than conqueror ; ” but in some few 
instances it induces him to make a premature expose — to wear his 
heart upon his sleeve, too much exposed to the eye of criticism. 
We would fain lend the help of our feeble arm to support Mr. 
Mearns, for we know that grapes may be developed, grown, and com¬ 
pletely matured, by a coiled shoot of a vine—a regular bearing-shoot — 
cut from a wall, destitute of roots, and passed round a No. 12 pot in 
VOL. v.—NO. LXI. i i 
