718 GARDEN MANAGEiLENT. 



2251. Continue to look over and preserve late grapes, and maintain a cool 

 and equable temperature of 40° to 50°. If a gentle current of air can be 

 kept up through the houses by night and by day, the fruit will keep all the 

 better. Vine-borders may also be formed, or old borders renewed during 

 this month. Instructions have already been given concerning the formation. 

 Old vines may also be taken up where the borders are bad, the roots care- 

 fully preserved, a new border made and skilfully planted, and half a crop 

 taken the first season. Young vines may also be planted in a dormant state 

 or first started in pots, and then put in the border in June or July. I have 

 planted young vines in the latter month that have ripened 15 feet of good 

 wood during the first year. The great point in planting at any season is 

 carefully to surround the roots, sprinkle some leaf-mould over them, and keep 

 them within six inches of the surface. A mulching of dung or some litter 

 wiU be necessary to prevent them being dried up ; and if the vine is in full 

 growth when planted, the top must be shaded a few days until the roots 

 have laid hold of the soil ; then let the top run as far as it chooses. Leave 

 laterals and all on. The more growth for the next four months the better, 

 because the larger the top the greater the number of healthy roots. Upon 

 the number, nearness to the sm'face, and strength of these, all future suc- 

 cess may be said to depend. 



■2252. In reference to sorts, nothing equals for general purposes the Black 

 Hamburg. Taking it for all in all, we are never likely to see its like again ; 

 the Mill Hill Hamburg is also good, as well as the Golden Hamburg, when you 

 can get it. I see this grape is put down in the catalogues as a great bearer. 

 "Well, it may be ; but such is not the result of my observation and expe- 

 rience ; it is a first-rate grape, but I fear a shy bearer. Next to the Hambm-g, 

 and infinitely before them in point of flavour, come the Muscats ; and the 

 only two that I care to grow are the Muscat of Alexandria and Muscat 

 Hambm'g. A black gi'ape, with a Miiscat flavour, has long been a desi- 

 deratum, and now we have it. This grape appears to possess all the good 

 qualities, and I fear most of the bad ones of Muscats, — the worst being a 

 liability in many places to shank. My own vines of this variety, I am sorry 

 to say, are considerably shanked ; and I have seen some in pots this season 

 utterly destroyed by shanking ; nevertheless, it is a first-rate grape. 



2253. Then for those who relish the best of all gi-apes, although, like many 

 good things, wrapped up in small parcels, — there are the Black, Grizzly, and 

 White Frontignacs — doubtless the richest-flavoured grapes grown. Next to 

 them is possibly the Chasselas Masque, or Joslin's St. Alban's, which has a 

 delicious flavour, but requires to be ripened in a very dry atmosphere to 

 prevent it cracMng. Then there are the Old Dutch and Buckland Sweet- 

 water, the earliest grapes by a month, and the Royal Muscadine, one of the 

 surest croppers, and the most useful of white grapes, of a sugar-and-water 

 flavour. Then there is the West St. Peter's — the very best late grape — 

 and Lady Down's Seedling, said to hang equally well, and also of first-rate 

 quality. The much-talked-of Barbarossa will hang \rell, and is a noble 



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