21 



calcareous soils. The Vinifera-Berlandieri hybrids have been used 

 to re-stock hundreds of acres in France, and the grapes produced 

 are not inferior in quality, while the vines are much more resistant 

 to disease. This is an important chapter in the history of vine culti- 

 vation, and illustrates the great value of resistant varieties or hy- 

 brids as a means of combating diseases of plants. We believe 

 that more substantial progress will be made against diseases of 

 plants by means of hardy varieties than by any methods of spray- 

 ing or sulphuring sickly plants. (Wm. G. Smith in Gardeners' 

 Chronicle). 



VARIETIES. 



European varieties are described in the Bulletin for September, 

 1887, and March-April, 1894. 



In 1903 cuttings of the following varieties of American grapes 

 were received from Messrs. T. V. Munson & Sons, Denison, Texas, 

 for trial in Jamaica, and are being grown at Hope Experiment 

 Station : — Blondin : Brilliant : Calabrian : Captain : Carman : 

 Cloeta : Feher Szagos : Fern Munson : Herbemont : Herman Jae- 

 ger : Kiowa : Manito : Perle of Anvers : R. W. Munson : Violet 

 Chasselas : Xlnta. 



Mr. Cradwick writing in 1897, says : — " Of the white varieties 

 which we have grown, I think the Muscats are the only grapes 

 worth growing to any extent ; these ripen up easily and uniformly. 

 We have grown other white grapes, the best of which are, Raisin 

 de Calabre and Foster's Seedling, but neither of these can be com- 

 pared with the Muscats, either for quality or for productiveness. 

 Another great point in favour of the Muscats is that they require 

 very little thinning, a most tedious process with most varieties. 

 Black grapes are not favourites in Jamaica, for what reason I 

 cannot tell, except perhaps that with nearly all the black grapes, 

 about five times more berries grow on each bunch than can pos- 

 sibly find room to grow to maturity, thus necessitating a lot of 

 thinning. If this is not done, and at exactly the right time, the 

 bunches are spoiled. Black Hamburg is perhaps the finest flavoured 

 of all black grapes. Black Alicante has borne fairly well, producing 

 nice bunches of very fine dark-coloured berries of fairly good 

 flavour, but the thinning is the bugbear with this variety. Gros 

 Colman, that most showy of all grapes, although it is never as good 

 as it looks, has proved a failure. It puts out the most promising 

 looking bunches which grow and swell up in the finest style 

 imaginable until the berries commence to colour, when they crack 

 and fall off, until by the time they are ripe there are only six or 

 eight berries on a bunch which, had it ripened properly, would 

 have weighed two or three pounds." 



And in the Annual Report for 1896-97 he writes as follows : — 

 " With reference to varieties, as far as it has been possible to de- 

 termine at Hope, the varieties to be grown on a large scale must 

 be selected from the following : — Black Hamburgh, Black Alicante, 

 Muscat of Alexandria, Raisin de Calabre. Of other varieties, tried 



