730 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
two or three years what it would formerly have taken 
ten to accomplish. Then again, the whole system 
upon which forcing houses of all kinds are heated 
may be said to have been elaborated at Chiswick. 
This garden was only established about sixty years 
ago—planting was commenced in 1822. At that 
time heating by hot water pipes was was all but 
unknown. Writing at about the date of the establish¬ 
ment of this garden, Mr. Knight says: “ The 
constructing of forcing-houses appears to be generally 
defective, and two are rarely constructed alike, 
though intended for the same purpose ; probably not 
a single building of this kind has yet been erected in 
which the greatest possible quantity of space has been 
obtained and of light and heat admitted proportionate 
to the capital expended. It may even be questioned 
whether a single hotbed has ever been made in the 
most advantageous form, and the proper application 
of glass, when artificial heat is not employed, is 
certainly very ill understood.” It is due to this 
Chiswick garden and to the experiments carried on 
there, that all these doubtful points have long been 
cleared up, and that the enormous [advance in the 
growing of fruit and flowers under glass observable of 
late years has been at all practicable. The Horti¬ 
cultural Society established scientific principles, 
and then came Sir Joseph Paxton’s original structure 
in Hyde Park to popularize among the wealthy the 
idea of ornamental glass structures, and the combined 
effect has been a, development of horticulture under 
glass, not so much as dreamed of fifty years ago. 
They have a wonderful series of glasshouses at 
Chiswick, including the famous great vinery 180 ft. long 
and 30 ft. broad. It has between fifty and sixty Vines 
trained over its interior, and they are now bearing 
fruit which when ripe will, it is computed, amount to 
somewhere about two tons, and the roots are all 
outside, and they have had this year forty loads of 
manure. They have a second and more recently 
constructed vinery, also with a wonderful show of 
fruit. 
The functions of the Fruit and Floral Committees 
are chiefly those of an examining body, and the 
awarding of certificates for really good things. Any 
person who has raised a new flower or fruit, or what 
he takes to be a new flower or fruit, may send 
specimens here and have them pronounced upon. 
As in the case of fertilizers, if a thing is being puffed 
upon the market as a startling novelty, and is not 
sent for the imprimatur of the Society, it will be 
purchased and submitted to the proper committee, 
and its merits, or want of merits, duly proclaimed. 
It continually happens that growers produce some 
variety of a fruit or a flower with which they 
are not familiar and which they honestly believe 
to be a new thing. Whether they are members of 
the Society or not, and without any fee, they 
have only to send a specimen to Chiswick or South 
Kensington and they may be tolerably sure of 
learning the truth about it. “New” things are con¬ 
tinually being pushed on in the market which are not 
new—perhaps are merely old and forgotten things 
revived. Now and again, at the proper season, the 
Society will get together from all sources as many 
as possible of these, things of a given kind. This year, 
for instance, they have a splendid collection of 
Fuchsias, comprising some 200 sorts, or rather com¬ 
prising plants which profess to be of 200 sorts. These 
will be closely examined by the Flower Committee, and 
fhe various aliases under which some of them will be 
found to be circulating in the trade will be set forth 
in the Society’s Journal [some day]. They are also 
this year giving special attention to Potatos, which 
they are growing here in great variety. A number 
of various kinds, many of them sent by growers as new 
and meritorious sorts, are planted under equal con¬ 
ditions, and will by-and-bye be dug up, and so many 
marks awarded for them as “ croppers,” and so many 
marks for their table quality after they have been 
boiled. Any grower having the good fortune 
to raise a really new and good thing may get a 
certificate which at once gives his production an 
important market value. Green Peas, Cauliflowers, 
Pelargoniums, Caladiums, Gloxinias, Maiden-hair 
Ferns, and Tomatos are among the things on trial 
this year. They have some twenty professedly 
different sorts of Tomatos to come before the Fruit 
Committee. These, like the rest of the things, are 
all grown by Mr. Barron and his staff, and it is 
essential, of course, that they shall all be grown 
upon an equal footing as regards soil and sunshine, 
moisture, and general attendance. Besides all this, 
these gardens are stocked with large numbers 
of fruit trees—Apples, Pears, Plums, and so 
forth, and any member of the Society may send 
here for grafts of any kind he may require, and 
will be sure of getting them if they are recognized as 
standard sorts. As a result of the late “ Apple 
Congress,” large numbers of the sorts hitherto 
regarded as standard have been destroyed, and newer 
kinds have been substituted. It has been decided to 
hold a similar inquisition upon Pears in October next, 
and the immense stock of Pear-trees from which 
growers have been recruiting their orchards all over 
the kingdom will similarly be subjected to a process 
of weeding out .—Daily Neics. 
Fruit Culture under Glass. — Vines : Anyone 
having Black Hamburg Vines in the early or second 
early houses which, through old age or other cause, 
have not yielded satisfactory crops during the last 
couple of years, I would strongly advise to cut all 
the bunches as soon as the berries are ripe, with 
9 ins. or 10 ins. of wood attached to each bunch, 
the ends of which should be placed in bottles of 
water in the Grape or fruit-room, or any other con¬ 
veniently cool and dry place, until the Grapes are 
required for use. This done, root out the old Vines, 
remove the soil from a narrow strip of the border, 
say 5 ft. wide, examine the drainage, and, if necessary, 
re-arrange it, placing over it a layer of good turfy 
loam, and afterwards fill the space excavated with a 
compost consisting of five parts of turfy loam, one of 
' wood ashes, one of lime rubble, one of fresh horse 
droppings, and about an ordinary - sized garden 
barrowful o fresh soot, mixing the whole well 
together before wheeling it on to the border when dry. 
In preparing the border, make allowance for the 
soil subsiding 5 ins. or 6 ins. within as many weeks 
from the time of making it. 
Planting the Vines.— Before proceeding with this 
operation, the woodwork, glass, and brickwork should 
be thoroughly cleansed—the latter should be washed 
with hot lime and the former with soft-soapy water. 
If the cultivator be not provided with home-grown 
Vines, of course he will have to buy them from 
some one who is reputed for the cultivation and 
sending out of clean, healthy plants. These, when 
thoroughly moist at the roots, should be turned out 
of the pots, have the drainage removed, and the soil 
all round the ball of roots and earth loosened with 
a pointed stick and be then planted at 3 ft. apart, 
about 1 in. deeper than they were in the pots, and 
make the soil firm about them in planting; then put 
a stick to each plant for support, and secure them 
to the trellis, but leave them sufficiently long to 
subside 5 ins. or 6 ins. with the soil. 
Bearing this in mind, tie the sticks loosely to the 
trellis, so that sticks, Vines, and soil may all sink 
together. This being done, give sufficient tepid water 
through a rose to settle the soil about the roots, and 
after-wards give a surface-dressing of a few inches 
thick of decayed manure. Shade the Vines with mats 
for a few days until the roots have taken to the new 
soil, and with this object in view and to freshen up 
the foliage, which, under the circumstances, will 
show a tendency to flag, damp them slightly over¬ 
head three times a day until they have made fresh 
growth, after which morning and afternoon will beoften 
enough, damping, however, the surface of the border, 
pathways, &c., a couple of times—say at eleven and 
one o’clock — during bright sunshiny weather to 
promote a genial atmosphere. Vines thus treated 
will reach the top of the rafters before the end of the 
season, and, if treated during the interval in the 
manner indicated at p. 698, may be allowed to bear a 
few bunches each next year. This method of pro¬ 
cedure has everything to commend its adoption, seeing 
that a crop of Grapes is taken from the old Vines this 
year in sufficient time to establish young ones for 
carrying a crop next year. 
Gbapes and Spidebs. —House spiders are quite as 
troublesome to Grape-growers as they are to house¬ 
July 18th, 1885. 
maids, and they are certainly much more injurious if 
allowed to locate themselves in the vineries, as affect¬ 
ing the appearance of, it may be, otherwise faultless 
bunches, by partially enveloping the berries in their 
artistically spun webs to the detriment of the bloom, 
than their presence, however objectionable, would be 
in the interior of the town or country mansion. 
Therefore, at no time, but particularly during the 
summer months, should spiders be tolerated in vineries; 
they should be hunted daily, and their webs broken 
up, great care being required in removing them with 
a camel-hair pencil from the bunches of Grapes or the 
individual berries not to rub the latter, as in that case 
the work would be better left undone.— H. IF. Ward, 
Longford Castle , Salisbury. 
Fruit Trees. — Summer Penning: The importance 
of this operation cannot well be over estimated, and 
so well are its advantages understood by practical 
men, that it is probably practised to a greater extent 
at the present time than at any former period. Not¬ 
withstanding this, however, there are many so-called 
gardeners, as well as many amateurs who occasionally 
employ the jobbing man, who do not have recourse to 
it so much as is desirable for the well-being of the 
trees, and as a natural consequence of their own 
interests as well. 
This must be my excuse for adverting briefly to the 
subject in your columns, and if only a small percent¬ 
age of those who have not hitherto adopted summer 
pruning as one of their fundamental rules of practice 
can be convinced of its utility, my present object will 
have been accomplished. 
Although the end of June in most localities is a good 
time for a beginning to be made, it is not by any means 
too late even now to commence, but no time should 
be lost. Apples, Pears, Plums, Apricots, and Cherries 
—Morellos excepted—should be taken in hand first. 
Cut back all young wood not required for the extension 
of trees or filling in vacant spaces to within about 2 ins. 
of their base. In some instances, notably old estab¬ 
lished wall-trained and pyramid Pears, several shoots 
will sometimes grow from very nearly the same point; 
all these, with the exception of one or two, should be 
cut clean out to obviate over-crowding, and for adding 
strength to such bloom-buds as are in course of forma¬ 
tion for the following year. Of course, it is only to 
trained trees and others grown on the bush system 
that these remarks apply. 
The treatment of Peaches and Nectarines varies 
somewhat from the above, inasmuch as little shorten¬ 
ing back, with the exception of lateral growth on 
strong vigorous shoots, is required. Nail in succes¬ 
sion shoots for next year’s crop, a space of 2 ins. may 
be allowed to intervene between each ; all other young 
growth which is not needed for this purpose may be 
treated as superfluous, and should be cut clean out. 
Many practical men nail in the - young shoots much 
closer than is advocated above ; in my opinion, how¬ 
ever, nothing is gained by it, but very much lost, as 
in no case which has come under my observation 
has the wood, foliage, and fruit been so fine as on 
trees where less crowding prevails. 
Baspberries should have all suckers cut off, leaving 
only six or eight of the strongest young canes to each 
shoot. Currants, red and white, are far better in 
both quality and quantity, as a rule, if they are 
subjected to summer pruning. In this case the young 
wood maybe cut back to a length of from 4 ins. to G ins. 
A few young healthy bushes treated thus will be found 
far more profitable than double the number of older 
ones which receive only the customary winter or 
autumn treatment. — J. II. 
Judging- Grapes.—I noticed with pleasure a 
departure in the rules of judging Black Grapes at the 
Cheltenham Show held last week. I have frequently 
seen at previous exhibitions large bunches of Black 
Hamburghs with large berries, not well finished, 
placed before smaller but well - ripened bunches. 
However, at the show held on July 8th, owing I 
suppose to a change in the judges, the first prize was 
given to Hamburghs of medium size in bunch and 
berry, but quite ripe and with the bloom perfect. 
Several good bunches of Muscats were shown, but 
none were perfectly ripe ; it was rather early in the 
season for well-finished examples of this Grape. The 
evil practice of showing other people’s products, both 
