As a gardener who has worked Grapes on the low night-temperature system, you will perhaps allow me to say something on the subject, as opened up by Mr Simpson in last month's 'Gardener,' I have before now stated my opinion on this system in the 'Gardener;' and without saying that it is the best system for the production of the very highest class Grapes, I have taken up this position, that good family Grapes can be produced thus - at the lowest possible expenditure in labour, fuel, and wear of vineries; at the same time, the Vines stand heavy cropping better, and will last longer than under high-steaming temperatures. When I restate that our vineries are not damped down, nor the Vines at any time syringed, something like the saving of labour over the old system will be at once apparent. As regards saving of fuel, that will go without saying; and as to the saving in the wear of vineries, when it is understood that at no time is the atmosphere of the houses in a saturated condition, or the houses shut up, that also will be apparent enough; while as regards the improvement in Vines, that of course has to be tried and proved to be believed.

The moot point, which has divided certain growers, has been as to the setting of the berries in low night-temperatures. I am inclined to believe that, other circumstances being right, a few degrees either way does not matter at this period; though at the same time I can fully endorse what was stated in the August issue, that "Muscats worked low at the blooming period were not set at all - stoneless or seedless, in fact." This is just what we find in our old Muscats. The bunches are full, but at least fifty per cent of the berries are without seeds. Whether they would stone if set in a higher temperature I do not say, but I hope to find how young Vines behave under both conditions of temperature.

And now let me say that I do not think the system as pursued by Mr Simpson one that will be followed by gardeners. Like many more gardeners, I had an opportunity of seeing some of the Grapes produced by Mr Simpson under his system at the Edinburgh Show in September, and nothing stronger could have been adduced as condemnatory of the system than these Grapes. It is to be presumed that these were the very best examples of Grape-culture which Mr Simpson could find to send. I do not know how the exhibition Grapes were grown, as, of course, they might all have been produced in low night-temperatures, or, on the other hand, under orthodox conditions; but any way, the Wortley Grapes were inferior in all respects to those staged for prizes. Instead of cutting any berries out, in one or two of the sorts it would have improved them to have produced a few more berries to fill them up with. The Show was held in the second week of September, and the Grapes were then unripe. Mr Simpson states they "are in flower early in the year." If so, how are they managed that they were unripe at the above date ? I contrive to get ours in flower in May, and ripe before September is out.

It would take us to fire pretty hard to get such Grapes as those under discussion ripe at the end of October, and then they would not have the flavour of Grapes ripened earlier. That the Vines had been too late in being ripened the previous season, was quite apparent from the loose make-up of some of the specimens. Mr Simpson states in a contemporary that he has had letters asking for advice as to how to proceed under the system he advocates, these Grapes having convinced the writers that it was better than the old system. I make bold to state my belief that no gardener who knows a good bunch of Grapes has asked for advice. Had I seen these examples eight years ago, I am afraid I might still have been indulging in high night-temperatures. When Grapes have got the colour on fairly, they require a high temperature to ripen them properly, and, what is of as much consequence, to ripen the wood of the Vines as well. Fuel saved at the expense of the Vines and the Grapes is a kind of retrenchment which does not pay.

It may be a matter of some amusement to those of your readers who do not read the 'Journal of Horticulture,' to know that the writer to whom Mr Simpson refers was taken to task by a gentleman in another paper, for stating that he "cropped his Vine-canes regularly at the rate of from 30 lb. to 50 lb. to the rod," and asked therein to furnish his name, and the whereabouts he contrived to obtain such incredible results. It is generally understood that the gentleman who adduces the testimony of this writer in support of his system of low night-temperature in the 'Gardener' for October is also the one who thus discredits that writer's statement in another paper a month earlier. But more strange still is this fact, that, in the 'Journal of Horticulture' for October 6th, this same writer, who had seen Mr Simpson's Grapes at Edinburgh, condemns Mr Simpson's "position;" tells him very candidly "his Grapes were green," and asks him "how he ripens them?" considers "neither the system of people who burn coals at night," nor the system of Mr Simpson, who must burn "coals late in autumn" to be "right;" and then states - "We know some have tried low night-temperatures, and have ultimately abandoned them for the reasons we have given" 1.

I may say that I think the "few cardinal points" noted in the article on Vines in the August number are quite to the point. Nobody could fail to produce good Grapes under the conditions there stated, the question of "setting" aside altogether. With regard to the dressing of bone-meal therein recommended, I may state that last autumn I worked into our borders a manure composed of superphosphate nitre and plaster of Paris mixed with bone-meal, and repeated the dressing in summer. I have never had Grapes coloured better than this year, and attribute that greatly to the potash contained in the nitre. Our borders are never watered without the addition of some enriching manure. I give high temperatures neither by day nor night. As the vineries are neither "damped down" nor "shut up," it is rarely that 85° is exceeded as the maximum temperature. If red-spider appears, it can always be traced to a fault in the management. In our case, a moist atmosphere or a dry one has nothing whatever to do with it. Were we to employ hot pipes to bring along the Grapes, these conditions might be absurd; under the treatment we give our Vines, we rind them necessary and wise.

R. P. Brotherston.

The Grape-Vine Discussion #1

With regard to certain outpourings on this subject in the 'Gardener' and elsewhere, I have only to state that they are so well known to be the outcome of long-pent-up resentment, as to deprive them of any little value they might have possessed. I prefer to discuss such topics with those whose own reputation extends at least beyond the sound of their own trumpetings. Reference has been made by your correspondent to a confrere of greater literary ability than himself, in another journal, and I can only congratulate him on the faculty that enables him to recognise a superior when he meets one, and admire the wisdom that teaches him to fall into the proper position of saying ditto to whatever his master may utter in the 'Gardener' and elsewhere. He has something to gain and nothing to lose by connections of that kind.

J. S., W.