THE CANADIA.N HORTICULTURIST. 177 



GRAPE GROWING IN THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 



r.Y p. E. BUCKE, OTTAWA. 



The vine industry, which had no existence in this country twenty 

 years ago, and lias now taken such a hold on our brethren of Western 

 Ontario, has only within quite a recent period extended itself so far 

 east as this locality. It was confidently believed for a long time that 

 if many kinds of the apple would not successfully flourish liere, it 

 was useless attempting this more tropical production of one of nature's 

 choicest gifts. The fact was either lost sight of, or else not understood, 

 that wliilst the peach, the plum, the pear, and the apple grew on trees 

 with stiff stems, the grape was produced on a pliant limber vine, and 

 that this makes all the difference in the cultivation of the one and 

 the other. It is found that the sun heat of the Ottawa valley during 

 the summer months is quite equal, if not superior, to the more west- 

 •ern peninsula ; and that by securing a southern exposure there is not 

 the slightest difficulty in ripening not only the ordinary hybrid out- 

 door varieties of grapes, but also some of those native to France, Spain 

 and Italy, and even others which it has hitherto been thought would 

 only ripen with favorable circumstances under glass. One of the 

 secrets of vine growing in localities where seasons are rather short, is 

 the securing of the vine from severe weather during winter, and tlie 

 keeping of the sap vessels from freezing and thawing during spring 

 by protecting the plants with a few inches of soil before the ground 

 closes up in autumn, which covering should not be removed until the 

 spring is fairly open ; the early maturity of the vine-wood, which 

 ripens with its fruits, and the season at which it begins to put forth 

 its leaves in the spring, gives the cultivator every opportunity to treat 

 the vine successfully in these respects. 



The vine is one of the most -docile of plants — it can be trained 

 and })runed in any direction ; it may be grown tied to a stake or spread 

 out like a fan, care being taken that all the main pruning be done in 

 the^autumn. No cutting of any kind must be attempted in the spring, 

 before the first leaves are open, with the exception of rubbing oil" the 

 duplicate buds which burst along the previous year's growth. Sum 

 mer pinching and pruning may be freely indulged in, and neither too 

 much wood or too heavy a crop should be allowed to remain on the 



