On the Shrivelmg of Grapes. 26 1 



Art. VII. On the Shriveling of Grapes, and Recommendations of 

 the early White Frontignan. By J. Robertson, Nurseryman. 



There has been much discussion in your Magazine on the 

 cause of, and remedy for, the frequent shriveling of grapes, 

 about the period of ripening, in stoves and vineries. Being 

 unluckily privileged, by my own ill success, to offer an opinion, 

 I must attribute it, in my case (for I think it may proceed from 

 various causes), to their being enveloped, at that season, in the 

 warm humid atmosphere generally maintained in stoves, particu- 

 larly wjiere they are filled with exotics ; by the constant process 

 of watering, steaming, and dashing necessary to preserve their 

 health, when it is an object of superior consideration to the 

 success of the grapes. These, at the same time, being prema- 

 turely excited by the extreme heat near the glass, absorb the 

 vapour in excess, and are hurried rapidly into the acetous fer- 

 mentation before perfecting the vinous one. 



Fruits of all sorts, during the process of ripening, and none 

 more so, I believe, than the grape, require a pure dry atmo- 

 sphere for the purpose of carrying off their redundant watery 

 juices, which would otherwise dilute perniciously the saccharine 

 principle, or prevent its formation. This redundancy may also 

 proceed from the root ; and in the correction of these causes 

 must lie the remedy. I have found the thick-skinned grapes 

 less liable to be affected in this manner than the thin. 



In my collection I have got an early white Frontignan, or the 

 muscat blanc de Jura, which, I think, is well adapted for the open 

 walls about London, as it ripens in my pine stove as early as the 

 Pitmaston white cluster, or the white muscadine. It is as highly 

 flavoured as the old white Frontignan, and bears better, though 

 not quite so large. I marked it in the Luxemburg catalogue 

 as being set down earlier; and 1 procured it from Paris through 

 M. Noisette. It may be had, I dare say, at the Chiswick 

 Garden, I having sent a plant there. 



Kilkenny^ March 18. 1837. 



Art. VIII. On the Shriveling of Grapes. By Agronome's 



Nephew. 



In my former communication on the shriveling of grapes, 

 (Vol. XI. p. 603.), I fancied I had hit on a plan that in some 

 degree prevented the footstalks of the berries from turning 

 black ; but now I am a year older, and have had another year's 

 practice, and chance, as it often does, has thrown in my way 

 something which I could never have discovered without it, I am 

 convinced that too moist an atmosphere is not the cause of the 



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