12 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



allowed to hang too long on the vine it 

 loses its flavor, particularly should wet 

 weather prevail at the time. 



I have made a few gallons of wine 

 each year for the last five years from 

 the Clinton, and find it improves very 

 much with age, and thus makes a wine 

 not to be despised. I would grow more 

 of the Clinton were it not that the 

 robins are so destructive on the crop ; 

 it is impossible to protect the fruit until 

 it gets properly ripe ; they also devour 

 large quantities of strawberries and 

 other small fruits, and I have never 

 discovered that they are of much value 

 in destroying pestiferous insects. It 

 is not at all uncommon to find cater- 

 pillars and insects of different kinds 

 swarming on the same tree with the 

 robin's nest, while hatching and rearing 

 its brood, and not one of the insect 

 tribe disturbed. 



I may mention here that the Rev. 

 Mr. Logan, of Fenelon Falls, which is 

 about six miles still further north than 

 my plantation, has been quite successful 

 in ripening several varieties of out-door 

 grapes, and the late Mr. Hooey, of 

 Rosedale, a few miles still farther north, 

 grew fine specimens for several years 

 in succession. I visited his place in 

 1879, and found his soil, both sur- 

 face and sub- soil, quite similar to mine. 



I may refer to another fact which 

 . serves to give me confidence as to my 

 future success, viz., that the wood of 

 nearly all my vines was hard and 

 thoroughly matured by the 25th of 

 September, and a few varieties even 

 much earlier. 



I am persuaded that there are large 

 areas of land in the Counties of Victoria 

 and Peterborough well suited for the 

 cultivation of the grape, and I am 

 sanguine enough to believe that Canada 

 ere long will be found to be a wine 

 producing country, and I hope to see 

 efforts made to make it such ; for if we 

 desire to do away with the common use 



of bad whisky and other spirituous 

 compounds, a substitute must be pro- 

 vided; we must encourage by every 

 legitimate means the production of a 

 wholesome, exhilarating, non-inebri- 

 ating beverage made from the juice of 

 the grape ; cheap, pure, light wines to 

 be used by all classes, young and old, 

 as it is in France, where amongst the 

 rural population, as well as that of 

 many of the large towns, a drunken 

 person is a vara avis. Here let me 

 say that although I by no means under- 

 value the work that has been done, and 

 the great efforts still making by tem- 

 perance advocates (notwithstanding, to 

 my mind, some very illogical arguments 

 often escape the lips of the most sincere 

 pleaders of the cause), for strict tem- 

 perance has long been and still is my 

 motto, yet I am persuaded that if such 

 wines as I have alluded to can be pro- 

 duced and become the common bever- 

 age, as in France and other portions of 

 Europe, it would prove the capsheaf to 

 all the temperance movements that 

 have yet been inaugurated. 1 have but 

 little faith in the doctrine of Prohibition 

 of the spirituous liquor traffic, unless a 

 refreshing and harmless substitute is 

 provided, neither do I concur in a de- 

 cision that was recently given by a 

 debating club a few miles from here, 

 ". That the moderate use of liquor is a 

 sin." In my collection of vines I have 

 four or five white varieties, one of 

 which is the Elvira, said to make a 

 good white wine. From its manner of 

 fruiting this season it has not proved 

 all I was led to expect from it ; the 

 bunches, though numerous enough, 

 were small, and the berries so closely 

 compacted that their size was not half 

 developed, besides they ripened un- 

 evenly, a few of the largest on each 

 bunch taking the lead and either 

 cracked open or the skins were punc- 

 tured by wasps, which seemed to con- 

 fine their depredations to this variety, 



