176 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Decembek 5. 
they make from sour Grape Vines is sent to the Greek 
islands, and to Spain and Portugal, to strengthen the 
best wines of those places. All kinds of vegetables and 
small fruit grow there as well as with us; but, occa¬ 
sionally, many of them, and especially Currants and 
Gooseberries, fail, by a longer and more severe drought 
than we experience in England. In the fields, they grow 
Wheat and Barley, Oats, Bye, Indian corn, Buckwheat, 
Beans, Tobacco, and Flax ; but I quite forget about 
Potatoes. Fuchsias and Scarlet Geraniums live out-of- 
doors there, with little or no protection, for six or seven 
years; then comes a harder winter which kills them 
outright. Oaks, Elms, Ashes, Poplars, Limes, Ches- 
nuts, Beech, and Pinus Maritima, are the principal 
forest trees, from the sea shore to near the top of the 
rocky mountains, behind the farms and vineyards. 
The soil in which the Vine does best there is very 
thin, and, to all appearance, poor, stony ground; re¬ 
quiring to be well shaded with the branches and leaves 
to yield a good crop, and that is one reason why they 
do not stop them in summer. 
I had long arguments with Mr. Sinclair about the 
proper cultivation of the Vine, in different countries, soils, 
and aspects. He is well aware of the difference between 
our practice in England, and the theory of Vine culture; 
and the sum of our arguments amounts to this, that 
theory is wrong, if you practice it on English Vines; and 
our practice is wrong if applied to Vines in such places 
as the Crimea, where the summer is long enough, and 
hot enough, to make use of every leaf and twig, so to 
speak, which the plant produces. He thinks we keep 
the Vines too much under in summer, in this country, 
and not enough under in winter, judging from his own 
experience of them, both in and out-of-doors in the 
Crimea. 
1 did not inquire, particularly, how he managed, or 
would manage, Vines under glass ; but in this country, 
! we have two kinds of pruners of Vines, and both bring 
out the finest flavoured, and the best looking, berries in 
! the world. What does our friend, Mr. Errington, think 
of letting a Vine run wild with all its laterals, and no 
stopping, until the crop was cut ? All the leaves in a 
vineyard can no more be fully exposed to the full in¬ 
fluence of the sun, as theory suggests, than in vineries 
under glass, and yet they do not only allow the Vines to 
run untouched all the summer, but insist on it as the 
right, and best plan in these warm vineyards. 
I saw a large vinery, last year, where not one of 
the laterals had been stopped the whole season; but 
the principal bearers were stopped at three or four 
joints beyond the bunch ; the crop was regular, but not 
heavy; the bunches were small, but the berries were 
good and well coloured. The gardener told me that he 
left the laterals untouched, in order to strengthen the 
roots for another season, as he called it. W as that a 
better plan, Mr. Errington, than to have stopped the 
laterals at a joint or two, and to have left more space 
for the larger leaves on the bearing shoots above the 
fruit, on the supposition that an equal quantity of leaf- 
surface was obtained by the two systems? This sub¬ 
ject is still open to fair discussion by practised hands; 
and surely, that system which gives the best crops, and 
: keeps the roots in full strength, must, in the long run, 
prove the best in or out-of-doors. 
WINTER CUTTINGS IN THE OPEN AIR. 
This subject has undergone a great change since I 
was a lad. I was first taught cuttings of hardy trees 
and bushes should be planted, or put in, through Janu¬ 
ary and February; but then the practice was that of 
] having one joint of the last years’ wood to every cut¬ 
ting, as was taught by Miller, Abercrombie, and other 
authors; and few cuttings were put in as early as No¬ 
vember, except Gooseberry and Currant cuttings. July 
was then the month for putting in cuttings of all ever¬ 
greens ; and they, too, must either have a heel or a 
joint of last year’s wood. From what I have since learnt, 
I do not believe that we have gained much by the change 
to plain cuttings of one summer’s growth; and from 
planting evergreen cuttings later in the summer, and 
cuttings of deciduous plants in the autumn. We have, 
certainly, more deaths now than formerly, both in the 
nurseries and in private gardens. I recollect a kind of 
American Elm, which was blown down in 1822 or 1823,1 
forget which, but the spring was unusually early. This 
tree came into leaf all over, lying on the ground; and 
about three hundred cuttings were made from it; those 
from the trunk had a slice of the old bark taken with 
each cutting ; the rest a joint of old wood; and most of 
them rooted that summer. D. Beaton. 
OLD TIMES, AND NEW MODES OF GROWING 
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
When I was revolving in my own mind, the other 
day, for my autobiography, the things which were done 
and said about gardening, when I was driven into the 
garden, I began to wonder bow very few discoveries 
have been made, in and about the garden, from that day 
to this. There was no hope for me then to begin to 
learn by experience, at twenty years of age, all that was 
necessary for a man to know to enable him to plant 
Cabbages, even if the ground was lined off for him ; and 
so I was driven into books the very next day, to make 
up for lost time. To pay up the debt for the urgent and 
most valuable assistance which I received from books 
at the beginning of this journey, is the sole reason of 
my earnestness for improving our books and practice at 
the close of it. 
Lest I should again forget to mention it, and re¬ 
gretting that I forgot it during my own practice, I shall 
first mention an ingenious experiment which I saw 
begun, under very favourable circumstances, in the 
summer of 1825, but the result has not yet been proved, 
although it might be proved in eighteen mouths. This 
experiment was tried on a new Chrysanthemum, and 
most of them were new at that day, in Edinburgh, and 
beyond it. However, all plants which were new and good 
were to be seen with Lady Gordon Cumming, at Altyre, 
sooner than anywhere else in those parts. She was 
fond of the sciences; a proficient in many branches of 
science herself; and her house and purse were always 
open to men of science, who were delighted to favour 
her, in return, with specimens and seeds from all parts 
of the world; and from China, among the rest. Her 
garden was an experimental garden, in a literal sense; 
and she was the ruling power, the guide, and experi¬ 
mentalist, in disguise. No one but her head-gardener, 
and one or two of the assistants, knew that every ex¬ 
periment was proposed, and the plan of carrying it out 
suggested, by Lady Cumming. Great people appear 
greater, when this trait in their character is understood. 
Lady Middleton proposed, suggested, and, with Sir 
William, settled before-hand, everything I did at Shrub- 
land Park, and they gave me the credit of it, and 
wished the world to believe it due to me. How different 
from some who would be great; but I am not preaching 
a sermon, I was only going to mention the ingenious 
experiment which Lady Cumming wished her gardener, 
Mr. Temple, to try in the summer of 1825, but some 
family arrangement called him away from the north; i 
and the first thing which his successor, Mr. McLean, j 
from Lee’s Nursery, did, was to upset all the experi- 1 
ments and plans of Mr. Temple; but he kept all the old 
garden hands till he learned to whistle the family tune, 1 
and he did well; but the ingenious experiment was for- 
