41S 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. : ( November 25. im. 



to tlut of Mr. Darwin, irho attribntee similar effects to the ajjencj of 

 worms. Dr. Voelcker remarked that lime so applied was always 

 washed down gradually in the manner described. 



rOMOLOGIC.\L GLEANINGS. 

 About the end of last September Messrs. Rtvois sent to 

 Covent Garden a rather considerable quantity of Reine Ci-irDE 

 i>E B.\TAT Plvms. They were large, covered with a whitish 

 bloom, and excellent in quality. They made the high price of 

 24s. per basbel, reminding one of old times, when Green Gages 

 made 21;. per bushel in some seasons. The above Pinms were 

 gathered from pyramidal trees imported from Monsieur Bavay 

 of Tilvorde, who had the property of the sort. This variety is 

 not likely to succeed as a standard or pyramid except in the 

 trarm counties of England. 



OUT-OF-DOOR GR.VPE CULTURE— "VSTKE 



MANUFACTURE. 



(Continued fr»m Vol. XVI., page 409.) 



I GATE the details of wine mannfactare quite snfficiently, I 

 hope, in Xo. 420 ; still, in papers treating on out-of-door Grape 

 culture, for me not to say a special word about making Grape 

 wine would appear like a representation of the play of Hamlet 

 with the Prince of Denmark nowhere. 



Last year was an exceptional one for the early ripening of 

 out-of-door Grapes. Kow, on the 'iSih of October the ice on 

 the pond would bear the ducks, and soon after snow was upon 

 the grotmd, and a north-east wind had been blowing for I for- 

 get how long ; nevertheless my Espiraa Grapes against the 

 walls of this house coloured well, were plump, and ripened, 

 and the Eoyal Muscadines against the garden vralls also 

 flotirished. I never gather Grapes until literally obliged, on 

 account of the enjoyment I feel whilst viewing their bountiful 

 clusters as they hang, richly ornamenting our ugly Oxfordshire 

 stone. Some people, however cold the weather, will sit shiver- 

 ing, or wrap themselves up in blankets, rather than light a 

 fire in the grate before Michaelmas-day ; others will not dig np 

 their Potatoes until after that period, whether it involve the 

 lotting of the tubers in the ground or no; and a good many 

 estimable people, to my knowledge, will insist upon cutting 

 their out-door Grapes on the second Tuesday in October, even 

 should they prove but half-ripe, thus entailing upon them- 

 selves extra trouble in being scarcely able to dispose of them 

 at a gift, when, if they had left them hanging on the Vines a 

 fortnight or three weeks longer, most probably an excellent 

 lot of Grapes jast in right order for wine-making, as well as 

 sundry bunches fit to eat, would have rewarded them for their 

 foiethonght and patience. So let those who read this take 

 notice of what I said about the manufacture of Gooseberry 

 and Bhubarb wine, it will serve their purpose just as well for 

 making Grape wine, merely taking care to allow one-third of 

 water to two-thirds of Grape jnice; also, when bruising the 

 iniit, not to pound with soffioient force to crush the pips, as 

 they would then impart a harsh disagreeable flavour to the 

 wine. Discard honey, for I find it gives a flavour of mead ; and 

 do not use red argol or tartaric acid. 



Kow, presuming my readers to be up to this point in posses- 

 sion of the information that they will require, I will add a 

 digest of my proceedings when making Espiran Grape wine 

 last year ; farther stating that in the other Grape wines which 

 I made — namely. Eoyal Muscadine and Muscat of Alexandria, 

 my manner of going to work was, and is to be, precisely similar. 



Digest. — ISGS. October S±. Gathered Espiran Grapes; 

 weight 450 lbs. 



Ojtober 9th. Picked those thoroughly ripened from the 

 bunches into a pan by themselves, crushed them, and the 

 saceharometer floated io the piue Grape juice at 17°. Added 

 4 gallons of water to the jaice in the pan, and the saccha- 

 xometer then floated at 10°. October lOib, saceharometer llj^ ; 

 October 11th, 13'; October 12:h, V2\' ; October 13th, 12°. 

 Pressed off, and it ran 17 gallons. Put 2 gallons of water at a 

 temperature of 80° to the strained-off skins, mixed up well, and 

 pressed it off ; the saceharometer floated in this at an Indication 

 of 8°. Put a gallon of it to the 17 above, and the saceharometer 

 indicated ra'her under 12'. Then added 50 lbs. of loaf sugar to 

 the quantity, and when the sugar was quite dissolved the saceha- 

 rometer floated at 44'. Covered over the pan with an old piece 

 of carpetin,j in a temperature averaging CO". 



October 14'.h, saceharometer 47' ; October 16th, 43^'. Pat 



into cask in the cellar. November Ctb, the Eaeehirometer at 

 the bnnghole indicated 20 ; November 17ih, 20- ; November 

 ::i'Eh, 1'.)'. Backed and sulphtued barrel ; filled and fined 

 immediately. 



December 2Cth, saceharometer 1**'. Plain-racked again. 



ISfii), January 30th, utccharometer 12= ; April 12th, 9°. 

 Dissolved about 2 lbs. of loaf sugar in 2 quarts of the wine, 

 passed it in at the bnnghole of the cask, and it brought up the 

 saccharometer's indication to IT. 



September 17th, saceharometer 10'. A bottle of this wine, 

 as drawn from the cask, was taken to the Koyal Horticoltural 

 Society's meeting at South Kensington on the 21st of Septem- 

 ber. It was reported en at page 244 of " our Journal." We are 

 now drinking this as a dark still wine, and drawn from the 

 barrel. I wish to keep it a year or two longer in the wood, but 

 the demand now for my home-made wines is too constant. 



EsriEiN CiUMPiGXE. — Digest. — ISfi^, October '.'th. Picked 

 unripe berries into a pan by themselves, crushed them in a 

 mortar with a pestle, using a circular motion, and without 

 bruising the pips. The saceharometer floated in the pure jnice 

 of these unripe Grapes at 15'. I added a gallon of water, and the 

 saceharometer then floated at (•'" : October 10th, saccharometet 

 105= ; October 11th, 12= ; October 12th, 12= ; October 13th, 12'. 



October 14th, saceharometer 10;=. Pressed off. ran 7J gallons; 

 saceharometer the same; put to the jaice the gallon of the 

 second pressing of the skins, which was to spare from the ripe 

 Grapes, and the saceharometer floated at 10', in the quantity ol 

 8^ gallons. Added 20 lbs. of loaf sugar, and the saceharometer 

 indexed 30'. Placed in the working-pan, covered over, in a 

 temperature averaging 60'. 



October 15th, saceharometer in pan 40' ; October 16th, 41° ; 

 17th, 39'. Tanned the wine. 



November 6th, saceharometer 17= ; racked and sulphured the 

 barrel, returned wine into the cask immediately afterwards, and 

 fined the liquor. 



December 4th, saceharometer 13' ; December 26th. 10'. Plain- 

 racked again. 



1869, January 30th, saceharometer S'. Dissolved sufficient 

 sugar to bring the specific gravilv np to the rennirements ol 

 English palate— viz., 10'. March'l3th, bottled. 



Midsummer, began to drink this, a fine sparkling wine. Octo- 

 ber 2Sth, I have just two bottles of it left ! Yet I smile when I 

 think of the change that has come over the spirit of one's wine- 

 making. "Wliy, I declare, I was a good ten years in living down 

 the " pooh-poohs. ' I can now look around and see house 

 after house being covered with Vines. Cool vineries are rising 

 beyond my count and ken, and some of my neighbours are 

 becoming wine-makiBg mad, not allowing a Gooseberry from 

 their bushes to make a pie ! One enterprising individual is 

 baying up all the Grapes he can hear of in the neighbourhood, 

 and I am continually receiving; fresh commissions for sacchA- 

 romeleis I — UrwArj)s A^■D Oswirj^s. 



(To be continacd.) 



PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS. 



Attek a long silence, caused by illness and absence abroad, 

 I have been roused from my idleness by once more seeing my 

 favourite nom dc plume ia the pages of Tm: Jorr.NAL or HoB- 

 TiccLTURE. I was induced to read the article in which it oc- 

 curred, in spite of its having for its heading the name of a 

 plant with which 1 am at this moment waging a war, which I 

 much fear will end in being a war of extermination. I can 

 only speak of Plumbago eapensis £s a greenhouse plant. I 

 have what a short time since was a magnificent specimen of it 

 trained up a pillar in the greenhouse ; in the summer its fresh 

 green dehghted my eyes, and I determined it should be a real 

 specimen plant — but how to set about it? 



I had a visit from a practical hortictJlurist. " Ah," said he, 

 "you patronise this old plant? Well, don't cut it, it hates the 

 knife ; you must train its long branches in and out and up in 

 this way," and he gave them a knowing twist. So I trained 

 the somewhat nntidy sprays, bringing the moss-like heads ol 

 coming bloom conspicuously forward (as "Silly Manchester" 

 did with the bow of ribbon on her bonnet), to the "con- 

 gregation side," the "congregation' being represented in the 

 greenhouse by a window looking into the drawing-room. Oh, 

 the trouble I had with those nnrnly branches '. Now they 

 lopped down on one side, and shot up out of sight on the other. 

 Now they entangled themselves in diignons, and flirted out in 

 Ihe faces of passers-by, till blue worsted and zinc wire reduced 

 i them to something like obedience. Eat the battle was not yet 



