274 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



they are about the size of peppercorns. When the grape 

 has nearly attained its size, it is beneficial to water the 

 fruit from a water-pot in the form of rain This makes 

 the skin tender, and increases the size of the berries. 

 You gradually uncover the berries, and expose them to the 

 sun, to heighten the color and improve the flavor ; if the 

 leaves are removed with this intent, they are separated 

 at the extremity of the footstalk, which is left behind to 

 attract the sap and nourish the bud at its base. 



If they wish to leave them out till after frosts, they are 

 either covered with paper bags, which are of use also in 

 protecting them from insects and birds, or they are often 

 preserved till Christmas by screening them from frost with 

 cloth, matting, or fern. The fruit is always gathered in a 

 dry day ; if stored moist, it would quickly spoil. Those 

 intended for keeping are cut before they are quite ripe; 

 some are hung up on hair lines, in reverse, with their 

 shoulders down, as that position prevents the berries lying 

 so close as to rot ; and some are spread on beds of fern. 



M. Noisette, according to Mr. Neill, trains grape vines 

 to a low trellis, three feet in advance of the walls where his 

 peach trees are trained. These vines are planted but three 

 feet asunder ; each vine has but a single arm, proceeding 

 horizontally from a vertical stem. These arms extend six 

 feet, being trained in one direction, each plant alternately 

 secured to the upper and lower rail. M. Noisette showed 

 him a triple contre-espalier of vines, the outermost trained 

 to a rail only one foot from the ground ; the second two 

 feet high, and the third or inmost at three feet from the 

 ground ; it being, as Mr. Neill states, a common remark 

 of the vignerons, that the nearer to the ground the bunches 

 are produced, the richer is the flavor of the grapes. 



M. Noisette stated to Mr. Neill that it was not uncom- 

 mon to have a vine of a single shoot of the Muscat of 

 Alexandria trained to the top of a south wall ten feet high, 

 and over the peach trees. 



EARLY MATURITY. 1st, GIRDLING, &c. Girdling af- 

 fords a resource in cold climates and unfavorable seasons; 

 it not only hastens the maturity of the fruit, but increases 

 its beauty and size. A portion of fine wood of the upper- 

 most branches should be selected, and the place where 

 the operation of girdling is to be performed, should be just 



