1883.] 
MR. BARRON ON VINE CULTURE.-MIGNONETTE. 
39 
for sowing in August to come in the following 
spring. 
Onions: White Spanish, Danvers’ Yellow, Brown 
Globe, and James’ Keeping are the best for spring 
sowing; Flat Italian Tripoli and Giant Bocca for 
autumn sowing. 
Radishes: French Breakfast and Wood’s Frame 
are good early sorts, with Bed and White Turnip 
for summer use. 
Savoy : Early Dwarf Green Curled. 
Spinach .- Bound for summer, and Prickly for 
winter and early spring use. 
Tomatos: we find a selection from Hepper’s 
Goliath to be as useful as any of the many sorts now 
advertised. 
Turnips: Purple-Top Munich, Early Snowball and 
Yeitch’s Bed Globe are all reliable. 
Vegetable Marrows: Short Jointed Long White. 
Of Potatos , which perhaps should have been first 
instead of last, we find the true old Ash-leaf, when 
to be had, Veitch’s Improved ditto, Prince Arthur, 
Haigh’s Seedling, and Magnum Bonum the best 
Kidney-shaped varieties; with Early Coldstream, 
Dalmahoy, Schoolmaster, Yicar of Laleham, and 
Champion in the Bound class. 
Of Cucumbers, which most amateurs grow, I 
would strongly recommend Telegraph and Tender 
and True among the larger varieties, with a good 
strain of Sion House in the shorter ones. 
I might have extended this list very much, 
but preferred only to name those varieties 
that I have proved to be good in their several 
classes.—H. J. Clayton, Grimston. 
MR. BARRON ON VINE CULTURE.* 
¥ E have to announce the recent publi¬ 
cation of a profusely illustrated 
volume on Vines and Vine-culture. 
A considerable portion of the con¬ 
tents of its twenty-six chapters has during the 
past ten years appeared in our pages, and 
therefore it becomes us to speak with some 
reservation as to its value to grape growers 
and students of Vine-culture; but the well- 
earned reputation of the author, and the 
results attained by him in reference to this 
department of fruit culture during the years 
in which the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
Garden at Chiswick has been placed under 
his supervision, enable us to say without fear 
of contradiction that Archibald Barron stands 
in the very front rank of British Vine growers 
—and this being established, it follows as a 
matter of course that what he has to propound 
or to write relating to the subject, must be 
sound, practical, instructive, and reliable 
reading. 
So much of the author. Of the book we 
* Vines and Vine-culture ; he in// a Treatise on the Culti¬ 
vation of the Grape Vine, with Descriptions of the Principal 
Varieties. By Archibald F. Barron, &c., See. London : 171, 
Fleet Street. To be had also of A. F. Barron, Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Garden, Chiswick. 
may say that there is no other which so 
thoroughly works up all the ins and outs of 
the subject. From the “ eye ” to the per¬ 
fected “long-rod,” from the “bud” to the 
“berry” and the “bunch” we are told all 
about it with a fulness of detail, and an abun¬ 
dance of illustration which makes every item 
so plain that “he who runs may read,” and 
not only read but comprehend. The vine 
border, the vineries, the methods of propa¬ 
gating, pruning, and training the plants, the 
manipulation, maturation, and storing of the 
precious fruit, the diseases to which vines are 
subject, the insect enemies which affect them 
—all these and the scores of other matters 
which make up successful Vine culture, re¬ 
ceive full attention, and most of them ample 
pictorial illustration. 
We believe there is nowhere to be found in 
our language so complete and thorough a 
descriptive list of the best sorts of Grapes, 
and here Mr. Barron’s prominent position at 
Chiswick has served him in good stead, since 
it has enabled him to observe and note the 
peculiarities of all the better sorts of Grapes, 
and thus to arrive at a true estimate of their 
value for garden culture. The results of these 
observations are embodied in the descriptions 
here given, and add immensely to their value 
to the practical cultivator, whose aim is to 
avoid all possible risks of failure. This portion 
of the book is illustrated by thirty plates en¬ 
graved to scale, from photographs of what are 
considered as the very best, the creme cle la 
creme of the varieties cultivated at the present 
day. 
These facts, which are unquestionable, 
fully justify us in asserting that here we have 
the best book on Vines and Vine-culture yet 
issued from the press, and they also enable us 
conscientiously to commend it to the notice 
of all those who take interest in the subject of 
Grape growing.—T. Moore. 
MIGNONETTE. 
J f - FTER cultivating this tiny herb for a 
■1 great many years, I found that it had 
s) certain peculiarities which had to he 
attended to if we would develop its 
chief merit—the sweet odour of its blossoms. 
The plant is a weedy-looking tender annual, 
for although we may see Tree Mignonette in 
