66 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  1897. 
fortune  to  be  present  that  every  item  in  the  programme  was  highly 
appreciated. 
The  day  was  one  of  the  brightest  and  hottest  of  the  season,  but 
this  did  not  deter  most  of  those  who  assembled  from  making  a 
thorough  exploration  indoors  and  out,  seeing  what  was  to  be  seen, 
and  it  may  safely  be  said  that  little  was  missed  in  any  of  the 
departments.  Those  who  could  enjoy,  as  surely  all  must,  a  sight 
in  the  cultivation  of  Figs  in  pots  had  the  opportunity  of  admiring, 
no  doubt,  the  finest  and  best-grown  collection  of  trees  in  Europe. 
Many  of  them  were  collected  by  the  late  Dr.  Hcgg.  They  were 
preserved  and  cultivated  by  Mr.  Barron  for  many  years,  and  it  is 
fortunate  that  they  have  fallen  into  able  hands.  The  present 
condition  of  the  trees  are  a  credit  to  all  who  have  “  handled  ”  them, 
and  a  cherished  possession  of  the  Society. 
Then  the  Vines  were  not  overlooked,  as  they  could  not  well 
be  ;  for  apart  from  other  structures,  have  we  not  here  the  finest 
vinery  of  its  kind  in  the  kingdom,  the  large  and  lofty  curvilinear 
span-roof,  with  its  ladder  on  wheels  like  a  gigantic  moveable  bridge, 
for  attending  to  the  Vines  and  thinning  the  four  or  five  thousands 
of  bunches  of  Grapes?  The  Vines  are  old,  but  show  no  deterio¬ 
ration  in  the  condition  they  have  presented  any  time  during  the 
past  twenty  jears;  but,  on  the  contrary,  invigoration. 
This  has  been  brought  about  mainly  by  a  reduction  of  old 
rods  and  the  increase  of  young  canes,  which  produce  better  foliage, 
bolder  axillary  buds,  and,  consequently,  finer  bunches  of  Grapes 
than  can  possibly  be  obtained  by  the  'stereotyped  close  pruning  of 
small  laterals  from  generation  to  generation.  It  was  also  under¬ 
stood  that  there  had  been  some  “  notching  ”  of  large  fibreless 
roots  in  the  hope  of  inciting  the  production  of  food-gathering 
fibres  In  the  upper  layer  of  soil.  More  time  is  needed  for  proving 
the  results  of  the  experiment,  but  having  regard  to  the  effects  of 
similar  practice  we  shall  be  a  little  surprised  if  still  greater 
improvement  does  not  follow  in  these  forty-year -old  Vines. 
But  speaking  of  surface  fibres  in  a  border  previously  destitute 
of  them,  it  is  possible  that  some  of  the  visitors  may  not  have 
observed  a  striking  example  of  their  quick  production  by  a  method 
as  simple  as  it  has  proved  effectual.  It  is  not  new,  neither  is  it 
Common,  but  because  it  has  succeeded  is  worthy  of  mention  here. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  interlacing  mass  of  quill-like  roots 
referred  to  could  not  be  seen  by  passers  through  the  long  and  much 
too  narrow  structure  without  moving  the  thick  mulching  of  lumpy 
manure  under  which  they  are  happily  working  to  the  obvious  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  Vines.  We  have  seen  below  the  surface,  however,  and 
believe  that  more  fresh  young  roots  have  been  induced  to  take 
possession  of  the  border  in  six  months  chan  could  have  been  dis¬ 
covered  at  any  time  during  the  past  six  years.  Will  they  remain  ? 
We  must  wait  and  see.  We  have  known  roots  to  permeate  this 
narrow  inside  border  before,  and  then  depart  either  downwards  or 
outwards,  no  one  knows  where.  They  have  simply  escaped,  as 
Vine  roots  will  sometimes,  through  some  cause  not  easy  to  discover. 
But  how  were  they  produced  ?  We  have  said  the  structure  is 
narrow.  It  is  a  mere  glazed  corridor,  nothing  like  half  wide  enough. 
It  would  pay  to  widen  it,  and  pay  well.  We  know  well  that  the 
idea  of  making  Chiswick  “  pay  ”  is  shocking  to  some  excellent 
educationists  who  have  souls  high  above  such  sordid  work  as 
market  gardening.  We  do  not  quarrel  with  them.  They  are  right 
from  their  own  point  of  view,  but  it  is  a  point  of  view  that  is 
becoming  obsolete  by  the  great  majority  of  students  who  are  seeking 
knowledge  in  gardening.  “  Do  nothing  with  the  object  of  making 
Chiswick  pay  ”  was  the  substance  of  a  letter  read  at  the  afternoon 
meeting  ;  but  it  contained  this  significant  proviso — “  except  it  may 
be  neofcssary  for  the  instruction  of  the  students.”  Exactly.  That 
is  the  whole  case.  Students,  above  all  things,  want  to  see  and  learn 
those  methods  by  which  the  greatest  and  most  profitable  returns 
are  produced.  Let  science  and  practice  go  hand  in  hand,  achieve 
the  best  results,  and  prove  that  they  are  so.  If  that  is  not  educa¬ 
tional,  what  is  it  ? 
There  is  no  necessity  to  make  Chiswick  a  “market  garden”  in 
the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term.  It  should  be  essentially  a 
garden  of  instruction,  and  show,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  the  results 
of  cultivation  as  based  on  sound  principles,  with  contrasting 
examples  of  erroneous  methods  and  the  penalty  of  failure  arising 
therefrom.  Let  it  do  that  in  Grape  culture.  Peach  culture.  Tomato 
culture,  or  any  other  culture,  and  let  the  reasons  for  success  in  one 
case  and  the  cause  of  failure  in  another  be  clearly  and  precisely 
set  forth  ;  and  here  a  scientific  coadjutor  might  be  of  advantage 
in  not  only  tracing  effects  to  their  cause,  but  making  clear  in  exact 
terms  the  reasons  for  the  differences  that  had  to  be  recorded. 
Returning  to  the  Vines,  which  might  have  been  made  to  illus¬ 
trate  in  the  meat  convincing  way  the  value  of  the  means  resorted 
to  for  accomplishing  the  object  desired.  They  had  reached  the 
limit,  all  too  short,  of  extension.  Nothing  bat  repression,  which, 
under  the  circumstances,  amounted  to  mutilation,  could  keep  them 
within  boundr,  by  constantly  pruning  away  the  upper  and  better 
parts — a  war  of  so-called  Art  against  Nature  struggling  to  be  free. 
Mr.  S.  T.  Wright,  instead  of  further  shortening  these  cramped 
Vines — mainly  Gros  Colmans — at  the  top,  shortened  them,  so  to 
say,  at  the  bottom  by  drawing  down  the  rods  and  bending  them 
into  excavations  made  in  the  border,  affixing  them  firmly  with 
stout  pegs,  packing  fresh  soil  round  them  and  keeping  it  moist. 
Thus  3  or  4  feet  of  head  room  was  obtained  for  the  best  portion  of 
the  Vines,  while  the  lower  parts,  which  practically  gave  no  fruit, 
were  made  to  bristle  with  roots  as  shown  in  fig.  11,  and  from 
these  in  turn  issued  mnumeiable  food-imbibing  ergani,  the  Vines 
responding  by  deeper  green  and  stouter  foliage,  and  freely  swelling 
fruit.  This  is  good,  very  good,  and  fuller  effects  will  be  seen  next 
season  than  this,  as  the  Vines  were  only  “  layered  ”  early  in  the 
present  year. 
But  now  comes  the  point  we  wish  to  urge,  and  by  which 
Chiswick,  while  proving  by  the  best  of  all  tests — crop  values — the 
most  excellent  work,  may,  and  should,  be  something  very  different 
from  a  market  garden.  If  a  few  of  these  Vines  had  been  left  to 
struggle  their  way,  and  bear  such  crops  as  they  could,  and  if  these 
crops  proved  markedly  inferior  by  comparison  with  the  others 
wisely  treated,  then  surely  would  the  power  of  superior  cultivation 
be  impressed  so  firmly  on  tho  minds  of  inexperienced  sludeats  as 
to  never  be  forgotten  ;  and  further,  if  exact  records  were  kept  of 
the  results  of  different  methods,  and  these  methods  were  carefully 
described,  the  published  information  would  be  of  value  far  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  seat  of  such  practical  educational  experiments. 
Similarly,  in  the  case  of  pruning  the  much  older  Vines  in  the 
much  larger  house,  if  a  few  of  those  Vines  were  allowed  to  carry 
an  over-profusion  of  thin  laterals  and  small  leaves,  and  these 
laterals  were  closely  spur-pruned,  then  would  be  seen  by  force  of 
contrast  the  fallacy  of  such  treatment,  and  the  value  of  intelligent 
routine  as  represented  by  the  far  larger  and  more  lucrative  crop 
borne  by  contiguous  Vines  to  which  such  routine  had  been  applied. 
There  are  thousands  of  old  and  comparatively  fruitless  Vines 
almost  all  over  the  country  that  might  be  made  to  bear — as  many 
o've  been  made  to  bear — crops  of  fourfold  value  and  more  by  a 
simple  change  in  management,  that  costs  no  more  than  the  old 
stereotyped  rule-of-thumb  method,  which  might  have  answered 
well  when  the  Vines  were  young  and  the  roots  under  the  control 
of  good  cultivators. 
Visitors  to  the  gardens  last  week  would  see  more  Vines  than 
those  to  which  we  have  referred,  including  the  high-sided  span- 
roofed  Muscat  house,  in  which  the  Vines  were  not  trained  by 
Mr.  Barron  to  the  apex  of  the  lofty  roof,  but  horizontally  across 
the  house,  a  little  above  the  base  of  the  rafters.  The  result  will 
soon  be  a  golden  ceiling  of  fruit.  How  much  labour  has  been 
saved  by  this  departure  in  dressing  the  Vines  and  thinning  the 
Grapes  it  would  not  be  easy  to  compute,  while  the  Vines  are  in  a 
great  deal  better  state  so  far  from  the  glass  than  are  hundreds 
which  are  too  near,  or  cruelly  pressing  against  it.  Most  Vines  are 
trained  too  near  the  roofs  to  which  they  are  secured,  and  these 
Chiswick  Vines  tell  ns  plainly  that  they  suffer  nothing  by  being 
