186 THE GARDENER. [April 



just keep as well in any dry room as in the vinery, and save the expense of 

 burning coal, even if there was not a plant in the house ; when the Vines could 

 be pruned and cleaned as already mentioned, and shut up, and in due time 

 start with the season ; and by the end of February or the beginning of March, if 

 everything is right, it takes very little trouble to bring the bunches in sight, if 

 they are forthcoming ; when the fore horse requires to be taken by the head, 

 as it were, and guided through the vicissitudes of our changeable seasons, and 

 landed safely ripe in September. And now as to temperature for Muscats or 

 late-keeping Grapes. We all admit that they require a somewhat higher tem- 

 l)erature than Black Hamburgs, &c., that being easily attained by starting the 

 different sorts as mentioned above, and keeping them close to their work during 

 the fore part of the season, while the sim has power. It saves a great deal of 

 anxiety for Muscats and Frontignacs thinning themselves, at the end of the 

 season, from a little gangrene, close by the footstalk of to all apj)earance well- 

 ripened berries, similar to the Madresfield Court at some places. 



I am of the same opinion as Mr Henderson respecting Madresfield Court, ]\Irs 

 Pmce, Alicant, Lady Downes, and Barbarossa. They all require a higher tem- 

 perature, or at least they require of us to make the summers as long as possible 

 for them, in order that they will stand good against our damp climate under all 

 circumstances, either in an unsuitable room or in a vinery crammed full of 

 bedding-plants. The months of December and January are the most trying 

 months for badly-ripened Grapes. If they are nothing more than bags of sweet 

 water, they soon succumb to dampness, when all the care of cutting out decayed 

 berries will not save them. Such a lot of GVapes cut and put into bottles, and 

 placed in a dry room, woidd sooner or later come to grief. 



I once cut a house of pot Grapes in the end of May, and hung them up in a dry 

 room in order to take in the Vines which belonged to the house, as they were 

 showing their bunches as they lay on the border outside. From the above pot 

 Vines, after keeping them in moisture about ten days or a fortnight, I took my 

 two first medals at a June exhibition, Regent's Park ; and as they were not kept 

 in water, I mention the above facts to show that well-ripened Grapes will 

 generally keep well under most unfavourable circumstances. 



Here at Worksop Manor I have got two late vineries — viz. , a Muscat house 

 and a mixed house of late-keeping sorts, heated upon the old principle of flues, but 

 the best arranged that I have seen, and I think the cheapest at the present price 

 of coal. The mixed house contains the following sorts : Black Hamburg, 

 Alicant, Madresfield Court, Mrs Pince, Lady Downes, Black Prince, Trebbiana, 

 — and a stranger, I know not what, but a good one. This house is generally 

 started some time after the Muscat house, and to all appearance the Grapes 

 finish off equally well with the sorts in the Muscat house. But not so when 

 December comes — I am obliged to dispose of them, as they show signs of decay ; 

 where in the Muscat house now I have Lady Downes as fresh and plump as 

 they were in September last, with scarcely a decayed berry in any of the 

 bunches. Both houses at present are alike filled with bedding-stuff in boxes, 

 but the watering of the bedding-stuff in this house very little interferes with the 

 keeping of the Grapes. One of the principal things in ripening Grapes is to 

 retain plenty of healthy foliage, and beginning early with late-keeping Grapes 

 as Mr Henderson asserts, when none need fear to keep late Grapes in bottles 

 or vineries. J. Miller. 



Worksop Manor and Clumber. 



[Our experience is, that Grapes keep weU enough in bottles, but they lose 

 much of their flavour as compared to those left on the Vine. — Ed.] 



