JVewj method of obtaining an early crop of Grapes. 13 



grapes as samples, the Society unanimously resolved to award to 

 Mr. Davis the premium of the eight Hamburgh ducats. Mr. 

 Davis's method of procedure is quite novel to us, and will prove 

 of the highest importance to those who desire to grow very early 

 crops of grapes. While at Demarara and Trinidad, he observed 

 with admiration the judicious management of the inhabitants, by 

 wdiich they have a continuous crop of ripe grapes throughout the 

 year. For that purpose they make choice of a border planted 

 with strong three year old vines, of the following late bearing 

 kinds: black Alicant, Chasselas rouge, and blue Frankenthal. 

 If the owner of such a border wishes to have ripe grapes in Jan- 

 uary, he sews up the vines in a coarse, loose linen canvass, lays 

 them down, and covers them closely with wooden shutters. 

 These shutters must be covered with about two feet of earth, 

 and then an extra covering of leaves over the whole, sufficient to 

 prevent any Influence of the sun. 



Although, in the experiment made by Mr. Davis, the vines em- 

 ployed were but one year old, he still succeeded perfectly in 

 raising a crop of ripe grapes by the middle of January. The 

 forcing-house was heated by steam, and Mr. Davis suggests, 

 that, in vineries heated by flues, the vines should be well syring- 

 ed in a temperature of 16° to 17° Reaumur. The Society are 

 gratified to have called forth, through the means of the premium 

 awarded to Mr. Davis, this ingenious method practised in tropi- 

 cal America. Although Mr. Arkwright exhibited before the 

 Horticultural Society of London, twenty-five years ago, grapes 

 ripened in January, yet his method required at least three years' 

 preparation for the late ripening varieties. Mr. Arkwright's 

 method appears to have consisted in the use of pine-houses and 

 vineries, adapted to produce a later display of their leaves; but 

 his method, if a successful one, was not sufficiently made known 

 in its details to be of any public advantage. In Mr. Davis's 

 method vines are selected which have never produced fruit, and 

 they are retarded, by a double repose, from their usual growth, 

 in order that they may push at a late period with the more vigor. 



It is a well known fact in vegetable physiology, and one which 

 must be observed in all early forcings, that there is a period of 

 vegetation in summer, and one of repose in winter, in all plants. 

 All vegetables produce, with few exceptions, their blossoms and 

 fruits once in the year, and then return to a state of repose, in 

 order to collect new vigor for the new vegetation. In the same 

 way the grape vine will long produce fruit annually, though at 

 different seasons, if the period of repose be changed and effectu- 

 ally carried out; rest being a leading rule, without which no 

 plant can produce good fruit. To attain this, the vines, after 

 they have been planted one, two or three years in a prepared 

 house, must be forced as early as possible in a temperature of 



