1873.] KEEPING GRAPES IN WINTER. 535 



avoid. Hence tlie too common practice of ventilating freely on damp 

 foggy days is a great mistake. This is simply drawing a volume of 

 air surcharged with moisture through the Yinery, to be condensed on 

 the bunches and Vines. Fire-heat in conjunction with ventilation on 

 such days does not mend the matter ; it rather increases it, by causing 

 a more rapid current of damp air to pass through the Yinery. The 

 thing to do is to keep the house close, especially at the front, during 

 foggy damp weather ; to keep the temperature about 45°, and just a 

 chink of air at the top, but, if possible, in such a manner that damp 

 does not fall into the house : hence the value of wet-weather ventila- 

 tion, as it is called. The time to fire and ventilate Yines freely is on 

 bright dry days, when it is certain that in the circulation more damp 

 can be expelled than there is admitted, and always dropping the heat 

 to the minimum of 45° to 50° before night. All inside surfaces 

 should be dry after the 1st of October, and never moistened, and a 

 low stagnant temperature should be avoided. The result of having 

 the air and Grapes inside the Yinery as cold as the external atmo- 

 sphere, or nearly so, is, that the moisture that is admitted with the air 

 from the outside condenses immediately on the surface of the berries ; 

 whereas, when they are warmer than the external air, they do not act 

 as condensers. This law of heat and moisture is very strikingly ex- 

 emplified by walking into a moist stove with a piece of smooth cold 

 wood or slate, or, in fact, any cold, hard, smooth substance. The 

 result is, that it is immediately covered with dew-drops. The cold 

 substance has condensed the particles of moisture in the warm air — 

 and just so the Grapes act to their own destruction. The temperature 

 should therefore be kept steadily above that of the external air, to 

 prevent this destructive result. We know of a whole Yinery full of 

 Grapes being lost last year by an amateur, simply by his keeping the 

 front and top ventilation always open in the dampest weather, and so 

 subjecting the Grapes to a cold vapour bath. 



There is one particularly ticklish time or stage when Grapes are the 

 most difficult to keep, and that is, just as the foliage begins to change 

 to the " sere and yellow leaf." Some varieties of Grapes are then very 

 subject to go wrong under the best treatment. Small white stars 

 of decay, cutting into the skins and radiating from a centre like a star, 

 first appear, and soon the whole berry goes wrong. The first signs 

 of this should incite to more vigilance. The afi'ected berries should 

 be at once removed, and all the laterals where there are any; and 

 where there are not, a portion of the foliage should be removed, so as to 

 let light and air play more freely about the bunches. We have known 

 the progress of decay arrested by removing part of the leaves while 

 they were comparatively fresh. No doubt the removal of part of the 



