THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Febefaby 16, 1858 
two shades of purple, from near the ground, to the 
j height of three or four feet, according to the strength 
| and richness of the soil. 
Everyone is now employed with propagation, or with the 
i preliminaries for quick work. Mr. Kidd, at the Stud House, 
I Hampton Court, wrote to me the other day, about the easiest 
I and the most complete w ay of striking Verbenas. His own 
; words are—“ The easiest, the quickest, and, above all, the 
most successful way of propagating Verbenas, Lobelias, and 
such like, is to fill flower-pot saucers with sand only, and to 
put in the cuttings as thick as they will stand, and place the 
saucers in a greenhouse, or a parlour, or any close room, 
where the heat is not lower than 50°; and I vouch for it, that 
| nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand wall strike 
roots in a few days. Then, let them be put into pots, boxes, 
! handlights, or frames, &c. Only try the experiment, and 
you will be surprised. What w r ould our old friend, Mr. 
Eerguson, of Stowe, or Mr. Frost, of Dropmore, or even 
you yourself, in Slirubland Park, say to this Ne Plus Ultra , 
twenty years ago ? ” Why, each of us could say, Good luck 
to you, Mr. Kidd, and I shall “vouch” that your plan 
shall be done justice to in the Experimental Garden this very 
spring, as sure as my name is D. Beaton. 
VINE BORDERS—PAST AND PRESENT. 
"When we cast our eyes back on the proceedings, as 
to Vines and their borders, from thirty to fifty years 
since, or more, we may find all confusion; nothing 
was conducted on principle—prescription over-ruled 
! the whole affair. Vines were considered as gross 
| feeders; borders were, therefore, made by forming 
deep excavations, and these were filled with the richest 
of soils, or composts, as they were termed, replete 
with gross manures. Many such borders, however, 
produced enormous bunches of Grapes, as well as 
monstrous berries, for a very few years, and then 
progressively declined : people wondering why this 
should be. On breaking up and renewing such 
borders, a dark adhesive mass might be found, almost 
similar to a dark-coloured putty. This was the once 
beautiful, mellow, and rich compost, which looked so 
tempting before being buried in these pits. As to 
fibres netted like basket-work, such as a good modern 
Vine border might be found to contain, sundry thick, 
dark, and charred-looking old roots were found, whose 
appearance at once denoted conditions quite inimical 
to the fruitfulness of the Vine. 
Now, what with this state of things, and the 
general prevalence of the red spider in those days, 
was it to be wondered at that gardeners, as years 
rolled on, when taking to a new situation, generally 
made a point of breaking up their predecessor’s Vine 
border, and forming a new one ? But, in the majority 
of cases, the same game, or one very similar, was 
played over again; and thus things proceeded for 
many years. 
About twenty or thirty years since, however, the 
intellectual advance of the age began to abhor mere 
; prescription in gardening, as in many other things ; 
and a spirit of inquiry began to prevail, as to what 
were the real habits and needs of the Vine. The 
question, however, was some time before it made 
! much advance, and years passed away before the im¬ 
portance of paying a due regard to texture in the soil 
was thorougly recognised; as, also, the necessity for 
i encouraging roots at a higher level, and surface roots, 
| or rather fibres, in preference to deep, black, coarse 
! roots, almost devoid of rootlets. 
The question of ground warmth, also, soon invited 
attention; for, in former days, our gardeners, in the 
I main, paid little heed to how soils received or parted 
with atmospheric heat. They had but one idea as to 
i bottom heat, and that was, a bed of fermenting ma- 
307 | 
terials. But, on a due consideration of the habits of j 
the. Vine in its native climes, people began to open 
their eyes, and to perceive that the warmth of the 
soil, and the manner in which it received or parted 
with the solar rays, lay at the bottom of the whole 
affair. Here science stepped in to the aid of practice, 
and old rules soon began to be looked into with ex- j 
treme suspicion. The late celebrated T. A. Knight, 
of Downton, was a host in himself, in these inquiries ; 
for he was eminently qualified to sift the confusion of ! 
opinions that existed, not only on account of his ori¬ 
ginality of mind, but also because he was employed j 
for years in testing his theories by practice. 
As to soils or composts, then, it was at once urged by 
those who led the van in this inquiry, that the texture 
of the soil ought at all times to form a primary con¬ 
sideration, taking priority evenof the manure question; 
for both the colour and texture of soils have great 
influence over their absorption of air heat, as also as 
to their retention of it. And, moreover, that fibres 
nestling a few inches below the surface of the border 
enjoyed., during that important period, the growing 
season, an advantage of many degrees of heat over 
those deep roots of the borders of the olden time. 
The spade, too, was soon voted an enemy to good Vine 
culture; and the cropping of Vine borders became 
very generally repudiated". In short, these maxims 
soon became pretty generally established amongst 
sensible and experienced men—that a border should 
be so made, as to preserve its texture and porosity for 
very many years; that it should be as shallow as 
possible, as compared with the old borders, yet not so 
shallow as to permit the volume of the roots to become 
parched and starved, by the extreme heat of summer; 
that every possible means should be taken to en¬ 
courage fibres at a high lsvel, as also to secure their 
preservation when there. These, I believe, are prin¬ 
ciples, not rules, which will, I venture to affirm, 
receive a hearty recognition by three-fourths of the 
best British gardeners of the day ; and, if so, where 
shall we go in these times for better testimony. 
I may now be permitted to reduce these principles 
to practice ; and endeavour to throw a little light on 
the character of soils, and composts, in a comparative 
point of view. 
Let me first advert to texture in soils. In order to 
make this familiar to unpractised minds, let me offer 
a comparison. Only let any one take some turf fresh 
from the pastures, or from the common side—the f 
fresher the better—and chop it into pieces with the 
spade. Then let him stamp on it with his feet; and it 
will be found almost impossible to cement it thus into 
an adhesive mass. Let him then take what is called 
“ compost ” loam, and dung, and leaf soil, or other j 
things, which have been turned and turned to sweeten, ( 
as some people have it. Let him stamp or tread on 
a mass of this in like manner, and it will become a j 
close adhesive body. This may serve as an off-hand 
illustration. The one readily coheres by pressure, I 
the other with great difficulty. That there is a great i 
difference, must be obvious to all. Now, of course, 
this compost is richer as to manurial matters ; but what 
signifies the amount of manurial treasure in a given 
compost, if such is, as it were, hermetically sealed P 
But it is not a mere manure question ; the turfy 
matter in the pasture soil is such a net-work of organic 
matter, of a tough and fibrous character, that years 
must, of necessity, elapse before, under the most 
trying circumstances, it can become closed against 
the action of the air, or impede the free passage of 1 
water. And why? Simply because the organic 
matter is of so enduring a texture, and the fibres 
so numerous : they are, moreover, fresh, and not 
fermented like manures. 
I 
