46G 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ June 17, 1876. 



somewhat monotonous repetition of more common sorts of 

 shrubs, is precisely that which will probably tend most of all to 

 commend it to my readers. — Edwakd Luckhurst. 



GEOS GUILLAUME QKAPB. 



Mb. Luckhubst has done good service in drawing attention 

 to this valuable late Grape, but I cannot agree with him, nor 

 with " A Northern Gardener," or the author of the " Fruit 

 Manual" in its being a shy bearer. "Pruned," says "A 

 Northern Gardener," " on the orthodox spur system and with 

 only ordinary h?at it will seldom be satisfactory." Mr. Luck- 

 hurst is so rapturous as to exclaim, " Oh for an entire house of 

 Gros Guillaume upon its own roots which could ramble un- 

 checked and free in a wide border of sound rich soil !" In the 

 "entire house" I cordially agree with him, not because it is a 

 shy-fruiting sort in limited space nor when spur-pruned, but 

 because it ripens a month later than any other Grape, swelling 

 and colouring perfectly, though the ripening process be de- 

 ferred until late in September or October. I am also thoroughly 

 oonvinced that grafting to induce fruitfulness is altogether 

 unnecessary. I have by force of circumstances but little space 

 to do a great deal with, but small means may be as effective 

 for a purpose as great. A miniature Apple tree may give as 

 fine a fruit of its kind as one forty times the size, and a Vine 

 in a ground vinery or in a small house with a very limited 

 extent of foliage surface, a result corresponding in proportion 

 to cue with a large house to itself. A given extent of surface- 

 foliage, that surface will only give a certain amount in weight of 

 Grapes. It is vain to expect a Gros Gaillaume, Syrian, White 

 Nice, and other large-bunched Grapes to give as many bunches 

 in a given space as a White Frontignan, though they will give 

 an equal weight of Grapes from a similar extent of surface, 

 which means that Groa Guillaume requires for the production 

 of a bunch of G lbs. weight an extent of surface capable of pro- 

 ducing six bunches of any other kind of 1 lb. weight each. 



It has been stated by one of our best cultivators of Grapes 

 that 1 lb. per foot of rafter occupied is a very fair average of the 

 producing power of Vines, and as the Vines are planted at 

 various distances apart the approximation appears to have no 

 fixedness. Three feet and even less, and all distances up to 

 4 feet 6 inches and more, have I seen the rafters and the Vines 

 apart ; so that 3 square feet or 4 J (half as much more), or 5 or 

 6 square feet are equal to the production of a pound weight of 

 Grapes. It follows that those with fine vineries, the Vines at 

 4 to .5 feet or more apart, can obtain 2 lbs. weight for every foot 

 of rafter occupied ; whilst those who are so unfortunate as to 

 have the Vines .3 feet apart can only produce a pound. Poor 

 unfortunates ! For doing with Vines at 3 feet apart what others 

 do with theirs at 6 feet, obtaining the same amount of weight in 

 Grapes, you are considered Simons. Your bunches only weigh 

 a pound, while the others weigh two. Do not suppose that 

 the cultivator who grows the 2-lb. buuch is twice as clever as 

 the other, and do not expect of having 1 lb. per foot of rafter 

 if they are 18 inches apart, which is putting the case the other 

 way ; and if you fancy to have in place of twenty bunches of 

 a pound weight on 20 feet of rod the same number of bunches 

 weighing 4 lbs. each, the surface being the same, you are cer- 

 tain it may not be the first time of disappointment, but of 

 overcrop and its many attendant evils present and prospective. 



Three square feet of surface, I think, are required for the 

 production, in perfection, of a pound weight of Grapes, irre- 

 spective of kind or other consideration, be it grafting or what 

 it may, the conditions of cultivation being in other respects 

 favourable and suited to the kind. Small-bunched kinds will 

 give more bunches than a large- bunching kind, and though 

 the number of bunches may be very dissimilar, the quantity 

 by weight is not materially different. It applies equally to 

 Vines of the same kind as to different varieties. Large bunches 

 are not to be had in the same number as smaller from a given 

 quantity of surface ; but as the bunches are large or small 

 according to the vigour or stoutness of the wood producing 

 them, it follows the distance the spurs are npon the rod the 

 bunches will be largo or small in proportion to the distance, 

 or rather spice, each spur-shoot is provided with. There is of 

 course a limit to the productive power (though Mr. Hunter's 

 doings with Black HamburglV'Send to show the contrary) of 

 even the " extension system,"' little being gained by pushing 

 the extension too far. Nothing may be lost in quality ; but 

 the greatest produce, quality also considered, cannot be said 

 to bo attained by extended surface unless it be increasingly 

 productive. 



Monster bunches are not, though we admire them and ap- 

 plaud the growers, the acme to aim at in Grope cultivation, 

 for they are as a rule had at the expense of quality. The great 

 aim of the cultivator is to obtain the maximum of quantity 

 and quality from given means, the two being inseparable. It 

 is rare that large bunches combine quality with usefulness ; 

 their value is not so great for table or market as fair-sized 

 bunches, though it may require two or three of them to weigh 

 as much. In the market a 2-lb. buuch of Hamburghs will 

 fetch as much as one of 4 lbs., the former being of superior 

 quality and the other deficient in colour — wan'ing the cha- 

 racteristic of quality. The offering of prizes for the largest 

 bunches is only encouraging bulk and coarseness. It ought 

 to be an instruction, when such prizes are offered, that mere 

 weight without the fullest satisfaction as to quality is not to 

 prevail. 



But after this digression I come to the small house at last. 

 It is a low lean-to — half a foot of wall above ground, and 3 feet of 

 glass in front, 11 feet high at the back, and 12 feet wide. The 

 house is planted as follows : — 3 feet apart two Black Hamburghs, 

 one Black Muscat, three Lady Downe's, two Gros Guillaume, 

 one Mrs. Pince, one Muscat of Alexandria, one Black Ham- 

 burgh, and one Muscat of Alexandria — as motley an arrange- 

 ment as could be wished. The Vines are not started at all, 

 but are allowed to break naturally, having no fire heat except 

 to exclude frost or dry up damp from November to May, a 

 minimum of 40" to 45° being maintained, free ventilation 

 given by day ; and to disperse damp, fire heat is given by day 

 and withdrawn at noon, so that the heating medium is cooled 

 down by night, a little air being left ou all night all the time 

 the Grapes are hanging. Until the shoots are stopped beyond 

 the fire heat above-named they have none, but then we raise 

 the temperature to G0° at night, and Go' when they are in 

 flower, keeping the temperature 65° to 70° by day in dull 

 weather, admitting air when sun heat raises the temperature to 

 75°, not exceeding 85° without full air, and this is maintained 

 until the fruit is all ripe, except Gros Guillaume, and the tem- 

 perature is lowered 5° in the course of a fortnight, and 10° in 

 a month, when we are careful only to exclude frost and damp. 

 The Hamburghs are ripe in August, fit to cut early in Sep- 

 tember, and they are good up to Christmas. Black Muscat of 

 Alexandria follows in a few days, and they are in good condi- 

 tion at the end of February. Muscat of Alexandria comes next, 

 they are fair up to Christmas ; Lady Downo's and Mrs. Pince 

 ripens together, and Gros Guillaume a month later than those. 

 The house was tilled with bedding'Geraniums in November; all 

 the leaves beino picked off, and potted in moist soil they did 

 not want any water or lived without until the Hamburghs and 

 Muscat of Alexandria were cut, Mrs. Pince, Lady Downe's, 

 Gros Guillaume, and Black Muscat not caring about a little 

 moisture in the atmosphere so long as it is not stagnant, and 

 can escape by the ventilators. It is a close, still, moist air 

 that is fatal to ripe Grapes. 



On the 18th January all were cut, in fact the Vines were 

 pruned and the Grapes removed to a fruit room, the ends of 

 the shoots inserted in bottles of water, one sort of bottle being 

 as good as another, and those we had contained about a pint 

 of water and bits of charcoal about a walnut size altogether to 

 each bottle. They cut sound, the last cut April 19th. 



The productive power taken in order of planting as before 

 stated is indicated by the bunches borne by each Vine — viz., 

 16, 20, 20, 24, 22, 20, 17, 8, IS, 18, 18, and 20. Lady Downe's 

 had the greatest number of bunches, and Gros Guillaume the 

 least, 17 and 8 respectively. The Vine with the seventeen 

 bunches did not have so good a crop as the one with eight, for 

 one bunch was worth any four of the other, and I find it gives 

 fully more than a fourth greater weight of Grapes than any of 

 the other Vines. It has never missed a crop in six years, and 

 I cannot therefore admit the Gros Guillaume a shy bearer. 

 Of course I shall be laughed at, but I am quite proof against 

 sneers. There is no doubt that many have such email houses, 

 and would have Grapes in them, only they are debarred from 

 its being represented that late Grapes require noble structures 

 to grow them in, which they have not and cannot afford. 



It is foreign to my purpose to run down longer, wider, loftier 

 houses — they are every way deserving of leading; at the same 

 time let us not forget that by making those the standpoint we 

 are shutting out from a participation in the luxury of Grapes 

 avast majority of horticultural devotees, who grow not Grapes 

 so much for their own use as that they may have to give to the 

 sick, Grapes (especially late) being a luxury to invalids. Many 

 grow fiowers and fruits that they may gladden other hearts by 



