THE 



GARDENER. 



JULY 1871. 



GRAPES. 



AS it ever occurred to our readers, that the largest, and in 

 nearly every respect the finest, examples of Grapes that 

 have appeared at our Horticultural shows, have not come 

 from those districts where the rainfall is least, but, on the 

 contrary, from those that are generally termed wet 1 If this has been 

 the rule, it has of course, like every other, not been without exception. 

 Yet we are inclined to think that there is some force in our question ; 

 and if so, it must have a bearing more or less in showing what the 

 most favourable conditions are to the finest development of the pro- 

 duce of Vines. "We do not think we are far wrong in saying that 

 our most Eshcol-like productions have made their appearance from 

 districts where the rainfall is above the average, and not under it. 

 Those who can cast their eye back for the last twenty-five years, and 

 can in memory scan our exhibition-tables, will be able to form some 

 opinion as to the correctness of the question here raised, and from 

 them we should be glad to have a verdict. 



It is a fact that the most gigantic bunch of Grapes ever produced in 

 Britain appeared last year at Edinburgh from one of our wettest Scot- 

 tish counties. This may simply be a coincidence, and the efi'ect of a 

 combination of circumstances entirely apart from the one now assumed. 

 Do not let it be supposed that we are under-estimating the skill which 

 must necessarily exist in the production of superior Grapes. Still we 

 have an impression, almost amounting to a settled conviction, that 

 certain districts are immensely more favourable than others to the 

 production of fine Grapes, independent of all the skill that can be 

 brought to bear in assisting the process. We were first impressed 



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