1 873.] EARLY RIPENING OF GRAPES. 181 



much worse than ever it had done before. Unwilling, however, to 

 believe that my theory was wrong, I started the Vines as early the 

 following season, but the result was exactly the same when mid-winter 

 arrived. Since then, we have therefore started late, and brought the 

 crop on leisurely, generally getting the fruit ripe about the middle of 

 October ; and it has kept as well as could be desired. Last year (1872), 

 owing to the absence of sun, the fruit was not ripe till the end of 

 October, and it has never kept better. At this date, 12th of February, 

 the half of the house (50 feet long) is hanging untouched ; both 

 Alicants and Lady Downes are plump and sound, and we have never 

 had occasion to use the scissors less. We were sending in the yellow 

 leaves off the Vines for garnishing the dessert at the New Year. This 

 has been my experience ; but that of my near neighbour here — Mr 

 Batley, gardener to T. V. Went worth, Esq., at Wentworth Castle, 

 near Barnsley — is of a still more decided kind. Mr Batley is rarely an 

 exhibitor, otherwise he would long ago have been conspicuous in the 

 front rank of Grape-growers, for the crops of Grapes at Wentworth 

 Castle are uniformly of high excellence ; and the late house of Alicants 

 and Lady Downes there is well worth going to see any time between 

 October and March or April. This house has been cropped six years ; 

 and every year the fruit has been left hanging on the Vines until so 

 late in spring that Mr Batley has not been able in many cases to 

 prune the shoots where the latest bunches were hanging, for fear of 

 bleeding ; consequently some of the spurs are nearly 2 feet long. 

 The house is shaded with mats in spring to prevent the rise of the sap 

 while the Grapes are hanging, and the Vines are only started in a 

 regular way, when they begin to move of their own accord ; and Mr 

 Batley informs me that the fruit is seldom or never ripe before the 

 end of October — this I can vouch for personally. Though the fruit is 

 allowed to hang so late every year, there is no diminution of vigour in 

 the Vines, except in one or two instances, where the bleeding was 

 severe on a certain occasion ; and it is only moderate praise to say 

 that, so far as I know, the crops, whether as regards size of bunch or 

 general finish, are not surpassed anywhere, and the way the fruit keeps 

 is a marvel. I saw the vinery the other day, and there did not seem 

 to have been a berry cut out ; and Mr Batley informed me they would 

 probably be hanging just as plump in March on the Amines, or in the 

 fruit-room in April, judging from his past experience. A few years 

 ago — 1868, I think — Mr Batley was induced to send two bunches to 

 South Kensington on the 6th of April. They caused something like a 

 sensation among the committee, were awarded a special certificate, and 

 inquiries were addressed to Mr Batley by the Society, through Mr 

 Barron, concerning his successful practice. Whether Mr Batley 's reply 



