118 THE GARDENER. [March 



as well ; but when talking the matter over lately with a fruit-dealer in a large 

 way, he told us that while his sale of Pine-apples had doubled or trebled, the 

 sale of Grapes had fallen off proportionally, and that fruit-sellers were cautious 

 in buying the latter, except to meet special orders. 



That leading article in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' (whose misfortune it is to 

 have to discuss practical questions in their scientific aspect), on M. Alberto 

 Levy's investigations regarding the influence of light on the ripening of Grapes, 

 strikes one as containing some rather trite observations on the subject. It is 

 addressed to gardeners, but there is nothing in it that they may not read, in 

 gardening calendars every day. "A little nonsense now and. then "is not 

 objectionable; but when a paper fills its leading columns one week with the 

 ramblings of persons whose dogmatic conceit and intolerance is only equalled 

 by their inexcusable ignorance of the subjects with which they attempt 

 to deal, and. the next with matter that is absolutely stale, it becomes 

 a trifle disappointing. Upon M. Levy's experiments and operations we 

 need offer little comment, except that most of the conclusions drawn from 

 the first are long foregone. His main object, we are told, "is to ascertain 

 what is the principal agent which determines the degree of acidity in ripe 

 Grapes, under equal conditions of soil and altitude," &c. ; or, in other and non- 

 scientific parlance, as the reader gathers from your contemporary — whether 

 sweetness or sourness — a good or a bad flavour is " determined " by a good or 

 a bad season, as these terms are understood; and after discussing the subject at 

 some length, your contemporary observes : "To the botanist it matters little 

 that the Grapes are sour or sweet — the Grapes are ripe in a botanical sense 

 when the seed is formed and in a fit state to germinate. But for the culti- 

 vator the Grapes cannot be considered ripe until the constituents of the fruit 

 have become so adjusted as to produce Grapes of the best quality for the table 

 or for vintage purposes. Botanists and physiologists have, to some extent, 

 ignored this latter class of changes, which, nevertheless, are all -important 

 to the cultivator, and to them the attention of chemists and physicists should 

 hi drawn." Thus, you perceive, botanists and physiologists, chemists and 

 physicists, who are here satisfactorily distinguished from the "cultivator" or 

 gardener, will tell the latter something by-and-by on the subject of ripening 

 Grapes — when they have time to look into the matter — and then what produc- 

 tions will appear on the dessert-table! The main conclusions arrived at by 

 your contemporary, in the meantime, are that "heat and moisture (alone) are 

 incapable" of ripening Grapes perfectly, and that "light alone can give us the 

 key to the solution of the problem ;" also that "the quality of the fruit as it 

 hangs on the vine depends on the combined action of heat and light during 

 ripening." From these conclusions the Grape-grower may infer three things 

 with tolerable certainty : first, that the sun shines in those countries where 

 the Grape comes to perfection ; secondly, that it would be almost hopeless to 

 attempt to ripen Grapes under any other than a glass roof in this country ; 

 thirdly, that the heat and the light, when they are "combined," must have 

 some reasonable proportion to each other. Unless we altogether misapprehend 

 your contemporary, we think this is what it intends to convey on the subject 

 of Grape culture. As to its statement that "abundant crops succeed to," or 

 are "insured by, dry, bright springs," we shall probably learn more when 

 the " botanists " and the "physicists," &c, have finished their investigations 

 on the subject ; but it may just be stated that, meanwhile, gardeners are 

 under the delusion that good crops only succeed favourable autumns that 

 ripen the wood and buds of the Vine, and that the spring season, be it favour- 



