PAXTONS 
H O RTIC U LT UR A L R E G 1ST E R, 
NOVEMBER, 1836. 
HORTICULTURE. 
ON THE SHANKING OF GRAPES. 
BY G. STAFFORD, GARDENER TO R. ARKWRIGHT, ESQ. 
Sir,— In page 330 of your Register, the writer of a very valuable 
paper on the “ Shanking of Grapes ” expresses a wish that I should 
state my opinion on the subject. I first gratefully thank him for his kind, 
and I hope merited, expression ; for, from the manner in which I now 
proceed in my culture of grapes, I have little to fear from this malady: 
but, in reality, I am as much at a loss to state or lay down a certain 
preventive as I was forty years ago; nor do I think that there exists a 
practical gardener in these realms that will presume to do so. All that 
they can at present do, is to imitate the intelligent “ A. L. A. TV’ in 
making public the result of their experience, from which much good 
may accrue. In a valuable paper furnished by Mr. Ayres, in the 
Register, lie wished that every practical gardener would state his 
opinion on the subject, well knowing at the time that the task was not 
a trivial one. Mr. Ayres was, to my knowledge, brought up where 
every facility was at hand to acquire a knowledge of every particular 
relating to the vine, but still leaves the subject for his older friends. 
In the first place, I think it impossible that the disease can be caused 
by the condensed water upon either the leaves or bunches ; for, if we 
examine the temperature of these drops, in no case do they exceed 
blood-heat, although the atmosphere of the house may be much higher. 
It may originate, in part, by a continued course of humid treatment— 
an opinion I expressed in a former number of the Register; but it is 
VOL. V.—NO. LXV. 3 F 
