APRIL. 155 



the rather inferior specimens of grapes that have been ex- 

 hibited the past four or five years at our horticultural shows ; 

 in very few instances have we noticed what might be termed 

 superior grapes. Especially has this been the case with those 

 raised in cold vineries ; nearly all have been wanting in that 

 rich deep color and fine bloom. — the indispensable accompani- 

 ment of good grapes, — while the berries have been of inferior 

 size, and, more than all, the bunches have been badly thinned. 

 Though the specimens have been abundant, they have ap- 

 peared to lack — with some notable exceptions — the magnifi- 

 cence of bunch and berry which have heretofore been 

 exhibited; and from whence we infer that among the multi- 

 tude of grape growers there is a want of practical skill, 

 without which it is impossible to produce this fruit in its 

 greatest perfection : and here we may remark that it is net 

 simply the management of the vines in which cultivators 

 may be at fault, but we suspect it is also in the construction 

 of the borders, the selection of soils and manures, as well 

 as the drainage, &c. &c. ; all matters of the greatest import- 

 ance in the successful cultivation of the grape. 



But while we mention this falling off in the growth of the 

 grape generally, it is gratifying to record particular instances 

 of success, or if not exactly success in legitimate cultiu-e, of 

 experiments made with a view to obtain certain results, out 

 of the ordinary mode of treatment. We have reference to 

 the system of culture recently advanced by Mr. M. H. Simp- 

 son, of Saxonville, Mass., described by himself in our volume 

 for 1855, (XXI. p. 83,) and which is to produce a crop 

 in January, or three crops in two years from the same 

 vines. The theory of Mr. Simpson is, that there is no ne- 

 cessity for so long a rest for the vines as has been usually 

 supposed; that the foreign grape, being a native of Syria, 

 where the winter season is much shorter than in more tem- 

 perate regions, a period of three or four months is ample to 

 secure all the advantages which nature intended for the vine 

 to recover its exhausted energies, and that it was then ready 

 for a new growth, and the maturing of its crop. The cor- 

 rectness of this theory has been doubted by many of our 



