142 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



like "roups. A portion of the grounds, extending 

 tVom"the lodge shrubbery to the Royal tent, had 

 been r.aiied otl' for the exclusive aecommodation of 

 her Majesty and suite. The rest of the grounds 

 were at the disposal of the visitors. Five thousand 

 tickets had been distributed. The whole were 

 eao-erly bought up, and vast numbers were disap- 

 pomted. The spacious and picturesque enclosure, 

 resembling the grounds of a baronial mansion, was 

 crowded tliroushout the fete. Her Majesty and 

 the Prince was'^reeeived at the lodge by the Mas- 

 ter of Downing, and entered the grounds by the 

 southern facade. The Queen and the Prince then 

 proceeded to the royal tent, which was most geor- 

 geously decorated with gold and crimson. After 

 partaking of some refreshment, the royal visitors, 

 attended^'by Mr. Ashton, secretary to the Horticul- 

 tural Society, visited each tent, in which flowers 

 were displayed. The pressure was, at this time, 

 very great ; the Duke of Wellington got into the 

 middle of the crowd before he was recognized, and 

 was much inconvenienced. After remaining in the 

 grounds about three quarters of an liour, and ac- 

 cepting a beautiful buoquet from Mrs. Ashton, 

 her Majesty, Prince AUiert. and the whole of their 

 suite, withdrew into the house of the Master of 

 Downing College, when the Queen was pleased to 

 express^her gratification at what she had seen. 

 The royal painty then left for the Fitz- William Mu- 

 seum, and afterwards attended the banquet, at half 

 past six o'clock, at the great liallin Trinity College." 



Enormous Pear.— M. Calle, of Brionne. has 

 drawn our attention to a print of the Belle Ange- 

 vine Pear, a variety, * the extraordinary size of 

 which has already attracted the attention of hor- 

 ticulturists. M. Calle has produced on one of his 

 trees a specimen which, in its dimensions, fully 

 equal any of those we have heretofore cited. This 

 fruit weighed 2 lbs. 15 oz. avordupois; and mea- 

 sures more than 13 inches in circumference by 

 nearlv 8 inches in \ieig\\t. — Revue Horticole. 



Malaga Raisin Vineyards.— At day-break this 

 morning, a gentleman, who u Mr. Kirkpatrick re- 

 quested to s4iow me his vineyard, and explain the 

 process of preserving grapes, waited upon me, and 

 we set out immediately. Our road lay along the 

 shore to the eastward, the vineyard of Don Salva- 

 dor Solier lying in that direction, at the distance of 

 about 14 miles" In the immediate vicinity of Mala- 

 ga, the country is extremely rugged, but every 

 patch v.-here it was possible to thrust in a plant 

 was under cultivation. The rocks consisted of rug- 

 ged masses of limestone, alternating with the same 

 kind of slaty schist I had previously observed on the 

 road from Antequera. For the first two leagues, 

 there were few vineyards, chielly owing to the rug- 

 gedness of the country, which would not admit of 

 cultivation. Beyond that distance almost every hill 

 was covered with vines, the produce of which is all 

 converted into raisins. The grapes are all of the 

 large white Muscatel- the Muscatel Gordo of 

 Roxas Clemente. This grape, my companion in- 

 formed me, does not succeed in the interior, and, 

 therefore, all the Muscatel raisins are made with- 

 * rit for cooking onl. . — Ed. Hobt. 



in two leagues of the coast. The Lexia rai.sins, 

 which are used for pudtlings, &c., are made in the 

 interior. We arrived at the country house of Don 

 Salvador at nine o'clock, and, after a substantial 

 breakfast, sallied out to examine the vines. Six or 

 seven workmen were employed in preparing the 

 ground for planting, within a short distance of the 

 house They did not trench the wnoie of the 

 ground, but dug out square holes, about two feet 

 in diameter and not more than 20 inches in depth. 

 The distance of the centres of these holes from 

 each other is seven feet, and this is the distance 

 at which the vines on the hills round Malaga seem 

 invariably to be planted. The vineyard I was ex- 

 amining, as well as all those in its vicinity, con- 

 sisted of a series of steep hills. The soil every- 

 where was a decomposed slate, mixed with abun- 

 dance of gravel of the same substance. On the 

 higher part of the ground, this soil appeared rather 

 hard and required great labor to break it up, but 

 once broken up it is loose forever; so much so that 

 it slides away from under the feet even where there 

 is only a slight slope. There is no difference made 

 in the distance at which the vines are planted, be- 

 tween the hills and the valleys; although in many 

 places on the former, the shoots scarcely extend 

 more than 10 or 12 inches, while in the valle)-s they 

 extend to the length of as many feet. They never, 

 under any circumstances, manure these vineyards; 

 they say it would give more wood but would not 

 add to the quantity of the fruit. The branches are 

 pruned closer to the stock than those of any vines I 

 ever saw; nothing but the half-formed buds, at the 

 junction of the old and new wood, being left to pro- 

 duce the wood of the succeeding year. I could not 

 find an instance where the spur had been left long 

 enough to include the first full-formed bud, which 

 is generally from half an inch to an inch from the 

 junction. The number of shoots seemed almost un- 

 limited; I counted from ten to twenty-two; there 

 was scarcely any vine had fewer than 10, and they 

 generally had from 12 to 15. The stock was close 

 to the ground, and not the slighest elibrt made to 

 raise the shoots, or support them from the ground. 

 Almost every bunch would, therefore, lie on the 

 ground; and were the soil of a less gravelly descrip- 

 tion, the greater part would, without doubt, be lost. 

 After the pruning they dig over the ground and lay 

 bare the stock, in order to scrape ofi'the barbe, or 

 small thread-like roots which are near the surface. 

 As scarcely any grass or herb vegetates among 

 these vines, and the soil is always sufficiently loose, 

 it is evident that they require little digging or 

 cleaning. We went out to visit a peasant, a neigh- 

 bor of Don Salvador's. He said four or five very 

 fine vines might yield raisins enough to fill a box 

 which contains an arroba of 25 lbs.; but throughout 

 the country it would require, on an average, nine or 

 ten. The grapes lose about two-thirds of their 

 weight in drying; this would, therefore, give a pro- 

 duce of 7 or 8 lbs. of grapes to each vine — a calcu- 

 lation which I should think must include a much 

 greater proportion of stinted vines than of luxuriant 

 ones; for the majority of those in Don Salvador's 

 vineyard would, I have no doubt, yield double that 

 quantity. Including, however, those vines which 

 arc visible at the tops even of the highest hills, the 



