1878.] 
131 
CLUBBING IN CABBAGES, ETC. 
roots alternately, for tire purpose of keeping up 
lively root action, without losing a crop. 
Assuming that we are about to start, in 
January, a house that has been well planted 
with Muscats and Alicantes , with room for 
extending the inside and outside borders as the 
roots advance, instead of filling up the border 
with a mass of compost, I should prefer cir¬ 
cumscribing the roots by means of turf walls, 
some feet within the space set aside for the 
border. The trench thus formed I should fill 
with fermenting oak-leaves, as soon as the vines 
had broken. In the course of three weeks these 
leaves would be cast on the top of the border, 
covered with shutters, and the trench having 
been refilled, root-action would be secured 
for the season. Meantime, the inside trench 
would be filled with a mixture of horse-dung 
and leaves, and the surface of the border, 
slightly mulched, would receive moderate sup¬ 
plies of water, at a temperature of 90° to 95°. 
Under this treatment, growth being free and 
quick, fine shows might be expected at from two 
to four buds on every shoot. 
So far the vines have not been distressed, 
the warmth applied to the roots having assisted 
them before the stored-up sap became ex¬ 
hausted. The great point now to be considered 
is a good set. To ensure this, we usually see 
every bunch left to exhaust the vines by the 
flowering process, at a time when they require 
all the assistance that can be given ; the result 
is a number of imperfectly fertilised bunches, 
from which, with a great deal of trouble and 
anxiety, twenty-five per cent, of the best are 
saved for the crop, and the others are cut off 
and thrown away as useless. After a narrow escape 
of this kind, the selected bunches will contain 
many stoneless berries, which obstinately refuse 
to fill up the space they ought to fill. The 
result is ragged bunches, through which a rifle 
ball might be fired without touching them ; and 
light cropping being almost as fatal as heavy 
cropping, the vines lose their balance, the wood 
becomes gross, ripens badly, and the second 
year is worse than the first. Now, had the 
seventy-five per cent, of bunches removed been 
cut off before they approached the flowering 
period, those left would have set like Hamburghs , 
probably without artificial fertilisation, certainly 
with the aid of the camel-hair pencil passed 
over every flower once a day. Muscats con¬ 
tain plenty of pollen, and some grape-growers 
draw the hand down the bunches ; but it is 
not a good practice, as many of the outside 
berries show a small brown spot at the apex 
when ripe, caused no doubt by pressure or 
.perspiration. Kempsey A licante , even after the 
surplus bunches have been removed, requires a 
little more care than the Muscat, and well this 
noble grape repays all that can be done for it. 
Having often noticed that Grapes invariably 
set well when the points of the bunches are 
drawn up by accident or otherwise to the glass, 
I pay great attention to the position of these 
when in flower, the more so as the Alicante 
often produces a moist, adhesive kind of 
matter, which prevents natural fertilisation; 
but by the daily use of the pencil, well fur¬ 
nished with Hamburgh or Muscat pollen, which 
is carried on a sheet of paper, this matter soon 
gives way, and the Alicante then sets as freely 
as any other Grape. Artificial fertilisation to 
some may appear a very tedious process, but 
having cleared the vines of the bulk of the 
surplus bunches, the operation is quickly per¬ 
formed ; indeed, half an hour each day while 
the Grapes are in flower will ensure a large 
house of well-set Grapes. 
Of the varieties in general cultivation that 
require artifical impregnation, I may name the 
Muscats , some of the Sweetwaters , Mrs, Pince's 
Muscat , Black Morocco , Venn's Seedling , and 
Muscat Hamburgh. The Frontignans, Lady 
Downe’s, and the Hamburgh, on imperfectly 
ripened wood of the past year, will also repay 
the care bestowed upon them. 
From the foregoing remarks, your readers 
will gather that many years’ practical experi¬ 
ence has taught me that moderate-sized borders, 
well filled with active roots, bottom-heat in 
proportion to that of the house in which the 
vines are growing, combined with the early re¬ 
moval of surplus bunches, and the artificial im¬ 
pregnation of those intended for the crop, will 
lead to success in the most difficult subjects; 
while treatment the reverse of this is attended 
with but partial success, or failure. I have not 
made any allusion to the ripening of the vines, 
as amateurs, to whom these remarks are 
addressed, know that good Grapes cannot be 
obtained from imperfectly-matured wood.— 
W. Coleman, Eastnor. 
CLUBBING IN CABBAGES, Etc. 
OME three or four years ago, M. Woronin 
read before the Natural History Society 
of St. Petersburg a profusely-illustrated 
memoir on the formidable disease called “ Club¬ 
bing,” which occurs amongst the Brassicaced\ 
or Cabbage tribe. ' The memoir owes its origin 
to the fact that a year or two previous to its ap¬ 
pearance the disease was very prevalent around 
St. Petersburg, causing the failure of the veget- 
K 2 
