26 CANNON HALL MUSCAT GKAPE. 



Rain has at length (Aug. 16th) visited this arid and parched 

 locality — will disease follow ? time must show ; but none remains 

 ere this imperfect communication must be despatched to the 

 press. 



V. — Memoranda respecting the Cannon Hall Muscat Grape. 

 By Alexander "Wilson, gardener at Cannon Hall. 

 (Communicated August 16, 1847.) 

 It is neai'ly a quarter of a century since the Cannon Hall 

 Muscat Grape was sent from here to the Horticultural Society, 

 and considering that it is one of the best and largest grapes 

 grown in this country, is it not rather strange that so few are 

 found who give it that attention which it deserves? It is said 

 to be a bad grower, and that it is difficult to get the fruit to set. 

 This is partly true ; none of the Muscats set their fruit so freely 

 as some of the other sorts under ordinary treatment : place them 

 in a situation natural to them, and they will be found to bear 

 fruit as freely as the Black Hamburgh. 



In propagating this variety, I take the ripest shoots, and cut 

 the eye or bud out with as little wood as possible, inserting them 

 in pots of sandy loam ; they are then plunged in a good bottom 

 heat, and encouraged in their growth as much as possible during 

 the early part of the season, so that the wood may be perfectly 

 ripened by the middle of September. As soon as the leaves 

 drop, they should be cut back to within two feet of the ground, 

 when they may be planted, if the border is made in the inside of 

 the house, taking care that no part of the stem is buried in the 

 soil ; but if the border is on the outside, they should be grown 

 another season in pots, so that the wood may be two years old 

 before it is exposed to the weather, for I find that one year old 

 wood is apt to damp off at tlie surface of the soil. In making 

 the border, take care that it is not made too rich. Loam, leaf 

 mould, and bones laid on a dry bed are all that is necessary. 



I have tried to force the Cannon Hall at almost all seasons of 

 the year ; but we have always had the best crops when we did 

 not begin before the middle of January. They may be forced 

 earlier, but the crop will be small. Beginning witli a very 

 gentle heat at first, keeping the house as moist as possible, and 

 gradually raising the temperature as the growth of the vines 

 advances, so as to have the night heat, when the vines are in blos- 

 som, at 75^ ; and during the day 100^ is not too much, if they 

 have a little air. The vines, if healthy, will show three or four 

 bunches on every shoot : cut them all off but one, and stop the 

 shoots three leaves above the bunch, nipping off with the finger 

 and thumb any shoots that make their appearance at the axils of 



