GRAPES. CULTIVATION, SOIL, ETC. 283 



orange and lemon peel, or by the addition of the bruised 

 seeds of grapes ; Sack, by the addition of a soirit distilled 

 from the leaves of Clary and malt spirits. 



GRAFTING THE VINE. The mode of grafting the vine, 

 of Mr. Gowan, which is so highly recommended by Mr. 

 Loudon, and tried and approved also by Mr. Thompson, is 

 as follows : Select a scion with but one single good eye ; 

 pare it beneath the eye, and on the opposite side, in the 

 form of a wedge. For a stock, a branch of the preceding 

 year is rather to be preferred. Cut this off a little above 

 the second eye from its base. With a sharp knife, split 

 it down the centre nearly to the old wood. Out of each 

 half of the stock, but chiefly out of that half which is op- 

 posite the bud, pare with a penknife as much as is neces- 

 sary to make it fit the cutting perfectly on that side. In- 

 sert the scion with its eye opposite to the eye which is 

 left on the top of the stock, and crowd it down nearly to a 

 level with that. Tie up and clay, covering all the scion 

 except only a small hole for the eye, and another hole for 

 the eye left on the top of the stock. Tie over a little 

 moss, to be occasionally sprinkled with water. It is very 

 essential and all important, that the young shoot on the 

 top of the stock should be allowed to grow for ten or fif- 

 teen days; then cut it off, leaving only one eye and one 

 leaf to draw the sap, and keep alive the circulation, till 

 both scion and stock are perfectly united. 



MALADIES. The chief malady to which grapes are 

 subject, in low and confined situations, is mildew. Mildew 

 is supposed to arise from a slow circulation of the sap, 

 and a debilitated state of the wood and fruit, caused by a 

 chilly and damp or stagnant atmosphere, and perhaps by 

 inaction. And it has been observed that the fruit which 

 trails on the earth always escapes, as it does also on airy 

 hills. Mildew is remedied by dredging the fruit with flour 

 of sulphur, on its first appearance. But the most ap- 

 proved mode of applying the sulphur is as follows : 



On the bottom of a vessel place a pint and a half of sul- 

 phur ; on this lay a lump of good unslacked lime, the size 

 of a fist, and on this pour two gallons of boiling water ; 

 after the lime is slacked, stir it well, and when the liquor 

 is cold, add more cold water, and stir it again ; and as soon 

 as the liquor has become clear, pour it from the sediment 

 into a barrel which must be filled with cold water. When 



