THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



11 



GRAPE GROWING AT LINDSAY. 



BY JOHN KNOWLSON. 



In February last I addressed a short 

 note to you giving an account of my 

 commencement of a small vineyard, 

 consisting of sixty varieties of vines, 

 planted in the spring of 1879, and 

 intimated that I expected to be able to 

 report my success with them by the 

 end of the current year. Out of that 

 number (averaging eight vines of each 

 variety) tliirty kinds fruited this season. 

 I may mention that, when I made my 

 selection of plants, my aim was to get 

 early and hardy sorts, with the ex- 

 ception of four or five late-ripening 

 varieties, which I determined to risk as 

 an experiment. Out of the thirty kinds 

 that fruited, twenty-five of them were 

 quite ripe by the middle of September, 

 indeed it was on the fifteenth that we 

 had these twenty-five pulled andhoused, 

 and a few of these had been ripe a full 

 week previous, viz. : The Champion (a 

 variety which has been introduced into 

 the Province of Quebec under another 

 name, viz Beaconsfield), the Hartford, 

 Tolman, Janesville, Telegraph, Massa- 

 soit and Eumelan. Of the late kinds, 

 the Concord, Clinton and Agawam 

 ripened about the twenty-fifth of same 

 montli. and the Diana and Cynthiana 

 the first week in October. Of the 

 Cynthiana, the great red wine grape of 

 Missouri, the bunches and berries were 

 very small, and the berries generally 

 througliout the vineyard were, I think, 

 smaller than they otherwise would have 

 been but for the long-continued droujrht 

 throuL,di a orreat portion of the summer 

 months. If we had had an occasional 

 copious rain-fall during that extremely 

 hot and dry period, I imagine the fruit 

 would have l)een larger ; whether that 

 long continuation of parching weather 

 had tiie effect of producing early ripen- 

 ing, I do not undertake to determine ; 

 possibly it had, so that, taking into 

 consid- ration the exceptional character 



of the season, I do not pretend to decide 

 that the present year's production is a 

 fair test of the results that may be 

 expected in the future ; however, I am 

 thoroughly convinced that the ground 

 on which my vines are planted is well 

 adapted to their cultivation. The sur- 

 face Hoil is a clay loam, mixed with 

 numerous small roundish lime-stones, 

 from twelve to fifteen inches in depth, 

 resting u\)on a sub-stratum of the same' 

 sort of stones, say from an ounce to 

 four or five pounds weight, five to six 

 feet deep, with little or no soil mixed 

 through them. 



I planted about 800 more vines last 

 spring, principally Concord, with a view 

 to make a fair and cheaj) drinkable 

 wine. I have had several varieties of 

 grapes ripen in Lindsay four seasons 

 out of five for the last eigliteen years, 

 although grown on a hard clay soil ; 

 but the vines I have been referring to 

 above are planted about ten miles to 

 the north of here, and are about fifty 

 miles north from the town of Port 

 Hope, situate on the shore of Lake 

 Ontario, at which latter place, as also 

 about the neighbouring Town of Co- 

 bourg, the attempt to grow out-door 

 grapes has not been successful, although 

 the soil seems quite well adapted to the , 

 purpose. 



A few of the varieties I have planted 

 I should have no desire to repeat — 

 the Champion for one, as I consider it 

 of very poor quality, and if the people 

 of Quebec have a relish for it I for one 

 do not envy them their enjoyment of 

 it ; the Hartford is not much better, 

 besides it is objectionable on account 

 of dropping its berries as soon as ripe ; 

 the Janesville is only four or five days 

 later than the Champion, and I think 

 of better quality than either it or the 

 Hartford ; the Massiisoit I like if pulled 

 at the proper stage of maturity ; if 



