.:^^- 1 : ■/ .1 



June 30, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



255 



ago, today 500 pounds would find a ready 

 market. 



Before I invested very largely in grap- 

 eries it would be well to know the possi- 

 bilities of California and our late acqui- 

 sition, Porto Rico, although I think the 

 latter island too tropical for these grapes. 

 A variety of grape comes to us from Cali- 

 fornia in the late summer mouths. The 

 variety I don't know. It is a red, gristly, 

 oval berry, fine in flavor but always seems 

 to me as if cut before it was ripe. A 

 grape never goes on ripening one hour 

 after it is cut; it must be fully ripe when 

 cut. After all, if California can produce 

 the best of Black Hamburgs and Muscat 

 of Alexandria she would only be in oppo- 

 sition to our home glass-grown products 

 during the short season when the crop 

 was ripe, while we with our glass-protect- 

 ed product could have them earlier and 

 later, for under proper conditions they 

 will hang for months. For instance, in 

 England grapes ripened in September are 

 kept in good condition on the vines till 

 the fjpllov^ing March. Perhaps in olflf win- 

 ters we could not do that, yet we coiiM 

 easily keep them till Christmas. 



Now as to the probable profits of this 

 most pleasant horticultural industry; we 

 can form some idea -from the price the 

 grower gets on the other side of the At- 

 lantic. Although I quoted $2 per pound 

 to the Belgian growers, there would be 

 money in grapes in the month of August 

 at one-fourth that figure. From several 

 causes, largely by the appearance of mil- 

 dew, outdoor grape-growing in Great Brit- 

 ain has for the past half century been 

 almost abandoned and practically all the 

 grapes are produced under glass. 

 While the milder and sunnier climate of 

 France, southern Germany and the still 

 more favorable climates of Italy and 

 Spain, produce these fine grapes without 

 protection, little attention is paid to their 

 cultivation under glass, hence the great 

 skill and art, we must call it, of the Brit- 

 ish gardener has produced extraordinary 

 results. A single bunch of grapes exhib- 

 ited at Edinburg some twenty years ago 

 weighed a few ounces over twenty-seven 

 pounds and to prove this was no freak 

 or monstrosity, the second prize bunch 

 was but a few ounces less. 



Fifty years ago in the British Isles 

 these hothouse grapes, as they were often 

 called, were as much out of the reach of 

 the moderate income as they are here 

 today, but that is no longer the case. 

 Some forty years ago millions of feet of 

 glass were erected for the cultivation of 

 the grape; all classes went in for grape 

 growing. In crowded cities, where there 

 was a little baek yard, as well as in more 

 favorable localities, up went the grap- 

 eries. In one favored spot on the south 

 coast, Worthing, county of Sussex, with 

 the shelter of the South Downs on the 

 north and English Channel on the south, 

 on a deep, rich loam, acres of graperies 

 were built and, although I am speaking; 

 from distant recollections, I feel sure that 

 hundreds of tons of these grapes did not 

 net the grower more than sixpence (12 

 cents) per pound. Such was the excel- 

 lence of the soil and salubrity of the cli- 

 mate that we can remember being there 

 one August day as an English volunteer, 

 a sort of Fourth of July soldier, and buy- 

 ing some fine ripe figs at the rate of .'50 

 cents per bushel. 



We have any amount of such good land 

 and, as Mr. Croydon remarks, our climate, 

 even in our northern states, is infinitely 

 more favorable from March to December 

 for the cultivation of the grape than is 

 that of Great Britain. 



'),':>; 



The "White Peony, Festiva Rfaxina. 



These remarks are too long already, so 

 I must cut short some points that I in- 

 tended to comment on. Style of house, 

 soil, inside or outside borders, cultivation, 

 etc., are worthy of a good sized book and 

 it is not quite called for here. Just a 

 word about what once existed here and 

 in many cities of 100,000 or 200,000 

 about thirty-five or forty years ago. 

 Building a cold grapery was a craze with 

 hundreds who could afford it. Scarcely 

 one now exists. The proprietor thouglit 

 building the grapery and planting the 

 vines was all there was to it and the 

 coachman or hired man could do the rest. 

 A few years of failure, then disgust, then 

 down came the structure and now grape 

 growing under glass is confined to wealthy 

 men's places, where they keep real, live, 

 professional gardeners, such as Arthur 

 Herrington and Wm. Duckham, who raise 

 splendid grapes. 



This luscious and delicious fruit is the 

 most simple to pack and a good travel*"- 

 and if I were young again and knew 

 what I do now I should not start grape 

 growing north of Maryland or "Virginia. 

 Freight to our large cities would cut no 

 figure, but the severe winters and the cost 

 for fuel, either in early forcing or late 

 retarding, would be of great moment, and 

 not only cost of fuel but our terrible win- 

 ters would be hard to overcoirte. 



In conclusion, there is only one feature 

 of grape culture that is tedious and that 

 is the thinning of the berries. Very cheap 

 help could be taught that. The difference 

 of the labor between En eland and this 

 country that would enter into the produc- 

 tion of these grapes would not be 5 cents 

 per pound and if they were let in free, 

 so much the better, for it would put gin- 

 ger into UP. 



In this city on February 1, 1875, T 

 put twenty-four cyCs of grape vines in 

 3-inch pots. All did well and produced 

 grapes, but from the best of the lot on 

 August ]. 1876. or after about nineteen 

 months, from this little hit of wood an 



inch long I cut twenty-three bunches with 



a total weight of seventeen pounds. I 



did something entirely different from the 



old, orthodox plan or would not have got 



those results. Goldsmith, when looking 



on decaying Italy, said: 



III farex the land, to hastening ills a prey. 

 Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 



The best way for us to keep from decay 

 is to grow antl produce what the wealthy 

 are willing to indulge in, and grow it 

 good and fine, and not trust too much 

 to "protection." William Scott. 



CUT WORMS AND ANTS. 



Please let me know, through the Re- 

 view, of a remedy for cut worms on cab- 

 bage plants, and if any brother florist 

 can tell me how to destroy ants I sh.all 

 appreciate it. I am greatly troubled with 

 both pests. P. J. K. 



As a preventive against cut worms on 

 cabbage plants a liberal dressing of air- 

 slaked lime given to the soil a week or 

 ten days previous to planting is about 

 the best thing I know of. When the 

 plants are once attacked it is hard to 

 get them back into good health, though 

 I have found that watering the healthy 

 plants, after a few began to show signs 

 of the trouble, with a solution of nitrate 

 of soda, using a good teaspoonful te a 

 ten-quart can of water, will prevent fur- 

 ther injury. Infested plants should be 

 pulled up and destroyed. 



Feed the ants, near their holes, with 

 powdered sugar for a few nights and, 

 when they have got to eating and carrj-- 

 ing it away freely, add a little arsenic 

 This will soon put an end to their careers. 

 The advantage of the powdered sugar is 

 that the particles, being small, are easily 

 carried into the holes, where they feed it 

 to their young brood and the queens. Once 

 the latter are destroyed the supply of 

 eggs is cut off, the queen, like the queen 

 bee, being the only female in the hive. 



W. S. Croydon. 



