312 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 18, 1857. 
7. 
The raising and replanting tire roots will be of 
great benefit without the concreting, but will not be a 
lasting one unless, by the means referred to, the roots 
are encouraged to keep near the surface. 
8. In performing the operation it will be best to re¬ 
move the surface soil in which there are few or no roots, 
and then begin at the outside of the border picking 
among the roots, saving every fibre that you can, and 
as soon as long enough put them in a cover as you 
proceed, until you get quite up to the wall. Keep them 
covered and damp, and they will take no harm for a 
short time, though, of course, the sooner they are 
replanted the better they will be. 
9. If your description of your present compost is 
correct I would add the fresh brown loam, the lime 
rubbish, the broken bricks, and perhaps a few broken 
bones, so as to make the border from four to six inches 
deeper, but I would add neither leaf mould, dung, nor 
decayed vegetable matter. It will be better, in such 
circumstances, to give extra nourishment when the Vine 
roots are working freely next season by mulching and 
waterings. 
10. See what has already been said about the time of 
performing such an operation. In your case I should 
prefer the end of September; the fruit will then be 
ripe, and the wood nearly so. Keep the foliage green 
as long as possible by shading and syringing, as that 
will promote root action. The soil will then be warm, 
and will also encourage root action. Just damp the soil 
where you put the roots down, but do not by any 
means make the border wet; on the contrary, keep the 
surface dry, and expose it to every ray of sunshine so 
as to secure heat. Towards November put on a little 
covering to prevent the warmth escaping. With such 
care I consider that your chance of a crop the following 
year will be better than if you had never lifted the Vines. 
On cold days in October you may require a little fire 
heat to keep the Vines growing. The longer the Vines 
grow before the first or second week in November the 
better will the roots be getting on. I would not advise 
forcing early the first year. Even if you commenced in 
February it would be necessary to give the roots a fillip 
by raising the border to between 60° and 70° with fer¬ 
menting matter. Of course, if the Vines broke about 
March, less of that would be necessary. 
11. If Vines are very old, long planted, and fail from 
being too deep in bad subsoil, I should deem the 
labour ill bestowed in lifting and replanting them. I 
should prefer freshening the border and planting young 
Vines. If the Vines are young, say planted from five 
to ten years, and have got down into such a subsoil, I 
should prefer raising them to planting fresh Vines, as 
likely to be more fruitful, and to continue keeping their 
roots nearer the surface. 
In your case, and as giving two strings to your bow. 
there can be no harm in planting a few young Vines as 
you piopose, and then it any tail you will be more 
secure; but you must select in.time what to leave, in 
order that the Vines may not be crowded so much as to 
deprive them of a due amount of light. 
If I can give any further assistance I shall be glad. 
R. Fish. 
MILDEW AND ITS EFFECTS. 
Few things have oftener baffled the efforts made for 
their eradication than the mildew; and though its 
existence is probably as old as that of the superior class 
ot vegetation to which it clings, it lias, during the last 
ew years, become more destructive in its ravages, and 
has consequently received a proportionate increase of 
public attention, and there are parties sanguine enough 
to insist that its destruction is as easy as that of a crop 
of weeds. Unfortunately these parties do not seem to 
have had very obstinate cases to deal with, and 
probably the cures they suppose themselves to have 
effected might have occurred without their assistance. 
As the evil is extensive in its operation a glance at 
a few of the crops affected by it may lead to some 
useful hints relative to the best way of avoiding it. 
Turnips. — Swedes are particularly liable to this 
malady in dry seasons, the foliage becoming coated 
with a white substance as if covered with dust. It is, 
however, more easily got rid of in this crop than in 
many others. A good rain gives fresh life to the plant, 
and if continued, together with the long autumn dews, 
fresh leaves are formed, which resist this pest, and the 
plant grows on. White Turnips are not so prone to 
mildew as Swedes, but all are liable at times. 
Hedges. —I have seen the tips of all the shoots 
covered with mildew so badly as to completely stop the 
growth, and of course the tips all die in winter. In 
cold, wet summers this evil exists to a much greater 
extent than in dry ones in the matter of hedges, but in 
some plants a contrary course seems to be the case, so 
extraordinary is this visitation ; but I remember noticing 
a hedge one season which had escaped the mildew, 
while all around it was infested. It was by the side of 
a public road, along which some scores of loads of lime 
were being daily carted, the droppings from those carts 
getting ground into dust, and, being blown upon the 
hedges, completely coated them in the same manner that 
turnpike hedges usually are, and it effectually preserved 
the shoots from mildew, thus showing that lime is 
antagonistic to its production. 
Hops. —There certainly have been greater efforts made 
to arrest the progress of mildew on this plant than on 
any other that I know, and it must be acknowledged 
that no plant presents greater facilities for studying its 
effects. Very valuable for their produce, there are few 
growers that would deny any reasonable amount of 
labour or expense that would insure them a crop ; con¬ 
sequently the wish to save the plants from mildew, or 
what is more generally termed mould, has given rise to 
various preventives or remedies. The friends of sulphur 
are loud and positive in their assertions of its efficacy, 
while certain manures are reported by others as likely to 
invite it; in fact, the eccentric way in which it exhibits 
itseli puzzles all attempts at assigning any general cause. 
One plot may be rendered worthless by its attacks, 
while another adjoining may entirely escape, and yet 
there may be no perceptible difference in their manage¬ 
ment, situation, or other circumstances. In like manner 
the application of sulphur may result in the disease dis¬ 
appearing, and a healthy crop following; but it far oftener 
follows that the disease baffles every attempt to remove 
it, even when the remedy was applied betimes, and con¬ 
tinued assiduously until all hopes of saving the crop 
were gone. This want of success has led many to believe 
that in the successful cases the means applied had 
very little to do with the change; that nature effected 
it without the sulphur, or in spite of it; and, in fact, 
we.often do see changes for the better take place without 
artificial help. The subject, however, is far from being 
a settled one, and sulphur versus mildew is one amongst 
many other cases not yet decided. Experiments on 
a giand scale are entered into annually; yet the subject 
is as much involved in doubt as ever. The bustling 
advocates for sulphur, asserting its unfailing utility one 
season, find to their mortification that it is powerless 
the next; but a new set of experimenters take their 
place, and the same results follow. It may be argued 
that the disease presents different features, which ought 
to be treated accordingly; but to the general looker-on 
the same result is observed, and it is only reasonable to 
suppose that the species of parasite which attacks the 
plant with fatal results one year is the same which does 
