February 17. THE COTTAGE GAllDENER. 381 
it kills all weeds, and the mint grows up in rows abundantly 
strong the next year. Licpiorioe is planted in deep, well 
manured ground, eiglitcen inches in the row, and nine inches 
plant from plant. When the stems and leaves are in full 
growth, they look like a plantation of sapling ash trees, 
growing to the height of four and live feet; these are cut 
down every year, and the horizontal root or rhizomes, travel 
along the surface: these having joints and eyes, are the 
propagating root. Every one must be forked up every 
winter. They ore sold for sweetening beer, ifcc.; but they 
are not near so sweet as the real root, which descends many 
feet into the ground ; the crop is taken up once in four or 
live years, according to the state of the land. The price for 
the best routs is about Tlil) per ton; an acre will produce 
j four and five tons. The price of the ground at Mitcham is 
I three to four pounds per acre. Lavender is a most impor- 
! taut crop; this occupies some two or three hundred acres ; 
I for this the ground is trench-ploughed. The land being all 
very light, this is easily done, ft is planted in November 
ami Marcli. I'he old plants are split down by the hand, the 
more they are split the finer the plants, for on this depends 
the number of roots. Generally about three to six are 
dibbled in every liole—they are planted about five inches 
deep, leaving only three inches of the tops above ground. 
They are jilanted two feet each way; and during the second 
yeai', an acre will fetch T'-il) for distilling purposes. Tlie heads 
are used for fine oil, the tlower-stems for rougher oils. The 
jiroper time to cut, is when the lower blooms arc just bo- 
giniiiug to turn brown; and, after cutting, the sooner it is 
distilled the better, for if left too long, it loses much of 
its fragrance; but Mitcham grows all other sorts of herbs; 
and even the London birds are not forgotten—groundsel, 
duckweed, and all other things. I saw, in fact, men, women, 
and children, who had nothing else to talk about but herbs ! 
herbs ! herbs!” 
SHANlviNG OF GRAPES. 
After the numerous disquisitions concerning this 
serious evil during the last twenty years, it is strange 
that complaints are still abundant. Scarcely has a week 
passed during the period referred to but one portion or 
other of the gardening press has contained remarks con¬ 
cerning it. From this it might he inferred very fairly 
that the subject is a most ditiioult one, and that in some 
soils or situations the evil must prove invincible, i am, 
however, (juitc of a different ojiinion, and would rather 
suggest that the subject has been overlaid; that an 
affair simple in itself has been too much mystified. It 
is in gardening difficulties, as with those in many other 
professions; the mind, in endeavouring to collect facts 
throwing light on the subject, gathers many that are of 
little import, and the whole matter becomes confused, 
wdiilst, perhaps, the greatest point of all is made to 
assume a mere secondary position. 
As to the consequences of what is termed shanking, I 
may just inform those who have not yet made so unlucky 
an aciptaintance, that it consists of a great portion of the 
bunch shrivelling uj), generally about the period of colour¬ 
ing and acquiring llavour. They of course become fla¬ 
vourless and worthless, and assume a peculiarly crabbed 
taste. It is almost needless to add, that the disappoint¬ 
ment is groat to a lady or gentleman who, possessing 
but one house, loses one of the most important items of 
the dessert table. To market gardeners it must be 
almost a ruinous ati'air, but f imagine they arc less 
liable to it than the rest of the community. High 
rentals, and an enormous outlay in labour, c&c., produces 
a kind of caution, and a business-like way of doing 
tilings, which in general stands the test. These men 
cannot allbrd to indulge in whims; they do not theorise 
much, but generally seize hold of one or two of the chief 
facts connected with culture, and at once jiroceed on 
them; thus their views of things are generally simple 
and bold, and devoid of e.xtraneous considerations. It 
must here be observed, that our first-rate men of prac¬ 
tice have at times taken diflerent views concerning 
shanking; such views, however, may in the main be 
comprised in two points, viz., bad atmospheric manage¬ 
ment, and imperfect root action; beyond these, I am not 
aware that any point worthy of consideration has been 
urged. 
To prepare the mind of the reader for a full and free 
examination of this serious matter, let us for a moment 
take a glance at out-door vines and pot vines, as com¬ 
pared with those of the hothouse or vinery. Having 
lived several years in a northern county, where the 
culture of out-door vines is seldom attempted, it might 
bo imagined that the writer of these remarks could 
scarcely take a fair survey of the matter. In my 
younger days, however, having spent many years in 
the vicinity of the metropolis, 1 became perfectly aware 
of the position of out-door vines; for, be it understood, 
their culture on the open wall is much in the same 
position it was forty years since; nothing is really new, 
as far as 1 am aware, beyond the late Mr. Clement 
Hoare’s ingenious mode of culture—more ingenious 
than sound. As to pot vines, it is notorious that 
shanking has not heen attributed to them, as in the 
case of vinos planted in what are termed borders. 
Vinos against the open wall, too, outdoors—many are 
the complaints about their non-ripening, but few indeed 
about shanking; as to imperfect ripening, through defi¬ 
ciencies of climate, we beg our younger readers to 
beware of mixing this case up with shanking—it is 
altogether difi'erent. Having thus opened the matter as 
to its most salient points, 1 will endeavour to show forth 
some material circumstances, which at all times afi'ect 
the well-being of vines, and in the present case are, in 
my opinion, the mainspring of the evil in question. In 
doing this 1 will take hold of the two chief points 
under consideration—viz., the influence of badly con¬ 
stituted soils on the root action, and the influence of 
corrupt or badly graduated atmospheres on the leaf 
action. Who has not seen vines in a damp house 
produce roots from their stems, and why? Because 
they want to change their character, and assume the habits 
of orchids? No; let us rather infer that there is some 
discrepancy between the functions of the roots and the 
branches—in other words, nature is baffled. 
I will almost engage to defy any practical gardener to 
affirm that ho can compel vines to evolve stem-roots 
in-doors, if the vines have a sound, good, and well- 
manwjed border, and an internal atmosphere the reverse 
of stagnant. Now, 1 think it will be found that vines 
which are so very apt to produce stem-roots in the 
house are bad ripeners, and are very apt to shank; if so, 
1 have made out a case in favour of the opinion, that 
capricious, or rather imperfect root action, is at least 
one of the pre-disposing causes. 
And how could it be otherwise? Admitting that the 
vines were rooted in a border too deep, or too stagnant 
in its own character, or the soil too adhesive, and that 
about the period of the commencement of the last 
swelling an unusually wet period set in, what would any 
practical man imagine as the consequences? — What 
state would he expect to find the finer fibres of the vine 
roots in, supposing that they could be exposed to the 
eye in all their ramifications? Nine out of ten men 
of experience would, 1 am persuaded, at once answer 
thus; “ 1 should expect to find precisely the same effects 
as happens to any tender plant in a pot, which, after 
being injudiciously planted in too tenacious a soil, and 
badly drained, had been much over-watered, most of the 
tender points and spougioles of the roots discoloured, 
decayed, or decaying, and consequently, as some of our 
writers now say, ‘ the supplies cut off’ until a new set of 
fibres can be produced.” This, in the case of the vine, is 
a matter which, under a return of the most favourable 
