Cannon Hall Muscat Grapes. 253 



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 grov/n 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 the surface of the soil. 

 In making the border, lake 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 with 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 blossom, 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 the leaves ; the bunches are large, and at the end formed like 

 the flower of a cock's-comb, with a stem nearly as thick as the branch from 

 which they grow, and the flowers are so thickly set on them that they have 

 not room to expand. With a pair of sharp-pointed scissors we cut off all 

 the little clusters of flowers in the inside of the bunch, and thin the others 

 as soon as they separate from one another, which is generally three or four 

 days before they open, taking care to make them thin enough; in doing 

 this the bunch should never be touched by the hand, and a little practice 

 will convince any one it is unnecessary. 



As soon as the Grapes are fairly set they should be well thinned out, and 

 a steady moist atmosphere kept up in the house until they are ripe. They 

 should never be syringed, as water thrown upon the berries makes tbem 

 turn black upon the sides and fall off, and this will also be the case with 

 them if the borders at any time get too wet, more especially during the time 

 the fruit is stoning. 



Last year I selected three good plants of Cannon Hall Muscat, and 

 plunged them in three different pits in which we grow melons ; one of the 

 pits was filled with tan, the second with good oak leaves, and the third with 

 half rotten leaves, which had been previously used in a pine pit. These 

 pits are heated by two hot-water pipes, which run along the front, and the 

 air from the outside can be made to pass over them ; the atmosphere in the 

 pits was kept as nearly as possible the same, but the bottom heat was very 

 different. The tan soon heated to between 80 and 90 degrees ; the fresh 

 leaves never got above 80 degrees ; and the rotten leaves had scarcely any 

 heat in them at all ; they might be said to be neither hot nor cold until the 

 vine began to grow, and the heat in the pits increased, when a little heat 

 could be perceived in them about the time the vines were in blossom. AH 

 VOL. XIV. — NO. VI. 22 



