36 West's St. Peter Grape. 



erers, knows the pear, calls it a melting Bonchretien, a good 

 bearer, and excellent keeper. Mr. Cooke's opinion is to the 

 same effect. 



It is amusing to hear of the Standard Napoleon being planted 

 on Coxheath, a spot where, during the war, the flower of the 

 British army were assembled to prevent such a result. Mr. Brad- 

 dick has purchased a very fine estate in that neighbourhood, 

 which he is improving on an extensive scale, and introducing 

 there, and, wherever he has an opportunity, the most improved 

 varieties of hardy fruits. To this subject he has been devoted 

 for many years, and, perhaps, no man living has originated 

 from seed, or imported from France and America a greater 

 number of excellent sorts. At Boughton, Mr. Braddick is 

 his own architect, agronome, and gardener, and we should 

 be most happy to receive some account of the many oper- 

 ations he has now going forward in building and planting. — 



COND. 



Art. X. On the Cultivation of the Grape known as West's St. 

 Peter, as p-actised at Spring Grove : By Mr. Isaac Old- 

 acre, F.H.S., gardener to the Emperor of Russia. 



West's St. Peter grape is acknowledged by all who have 

 seen it at Spring Grove to be the finest and best late grape 

 3'et cultivated in this country ; and although it has been long 

 in England it is but little known amongst horticulturists. 

 I am not acquainted with its having been cultivated in the 

 neighbourhood of London before I planted two vines of it 

 at Spring Grove in the year 1818. It has made such rapid 

 progress in its growth and fruit bearing, that I hope a short 

 history of it in your Gardener's Magazine may be of no small 

 interest to the lovers and cultivators of grapes in general, as, if 

 they adhere to the few hints here given, they may have grapes 

 all the winter months, as plentiful and as fine as at any time 

 in summer. 



I begin every year to force this grape in the middle of April, 

 and keep the heat of the house where it grows as near sixty- 

 five degrees fire heat, by Fahrenheit's thermometer, as I 

 can until the summer months. This grape requires more heat 

 to bring it to maturity than the Hamburgh, or any of the 

 earlier kinds I am acquainted with. The fruit with me begins 

 to change colour in August. When the weather is wet or cold 

 at this season I make a little fire at nights, so as to keep the 

 house at sixty degrees fire heat until the fruit becomes quite 

 black, which is sometimes in the middle, and sometimes in 



