132 THE FLORIST AND 



very varied experience in grape growing in many circumstances, and m 

 many conditions, I have at length arrived at the conclusion, that bad color- 

 ing is the result of a disproportion between the quantity of roots, and the 

 fruit to be nourished on any given vine. 



Opinions seem to be very opposite on the subject. Some asserting their 

 belief that the cause lies with "leaving on too many bunches ;" others "a 

 want of air at the time of coloring ;" another section? "the want of bright 

 sunshine or light" at that period ; and then again in "the borders being too 

 wet," "too poor," "too rich," or "the vines being placed too deep." The 

 quantity of heat or light has nothing to do with the subject of grapes ri- 

 pening without color, for without heat or light sufficient they will not ripen 

 at all though every other circumstance be favorable. The advocates of the 

 other theories are all right. Mistaking effects for causes results in the 

 seeming opposition of opinion. For instance, when "too many bunches" 

 are left on, the proper proportion of roots to bunches is overbalanced — in 

 other words the supply of nutriment afforded by the roots is insufficient. 

 Then again if the borders are ill drained, or become in any way so wet that 

 the young fibres are rotted off, the disproportion is again originated, and the 

 grapes will not color. If the vines are planted too deep in the borders, fi- 

 bres are produced ia_very small quantity ; and, as the fibres draw much nu- 

 triment from the atmosphere, the few that do exist are in no way propor- 

 tionate to the demands made upon them by the plant and the grapes will not 

 color. A border that is too rich, whereby the fibres are "burnt up," or too 

 poor to sustain the proper life of a grape vine, will also have the same ef- 

 fect. It is very rarely that we see a grape growing in a soil rather dry, and 

 not well enriched, ripen with a bad color, and where they seem to be, an ex- 

 amination will find that the want of color is in reality a want of ripeness, 

 arising from insufficient air, light, or heat. In a cold vinery where some 

 grapes grew in the house at the back wall, and others planted deep in an out- 

 side border and trained up the rafters, I have had the former beautifully 

 colored, when the latter were but indifferently so ; and in forcing them in 

 pots, I have found that if a vine get ^'over-watered" causing some of the 

 roots to decay, the same results happen. So if the pot is too small for the 

 strength of the vine, the bunches will color badly, unless assisted by liberal 

 supplies of manure water. 



From such observation and experience I lay it down as a rule, that what- 

 ever interrupts the proper course of nutriment between the roots and the 

 fruit, produces "Red Hamburg's." 



Thomas Meehan. 



