338 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDEN] XG. 



THE VINE AND ITS FEUIT. 



Ey William Cole k an. 



KEEPING AND PACKING GRAPES. 



Keeping Grapes through the Winter. — 



To keep grapes through the winter, they should he 

 thoroughly ripe hy the end of Septemher. Small 

 hunches keep hetter than large ones, and these 

 should he more severely thinned than summer 

 grapes, as it is necessary for the 

 air to have a free passage 

 through the centres to prevent 

 condensation of moisture on the 

 herries. If the roots have the 

 run of internal and external 

 borders, the first should he well 

 watered as soon as the grapes 

 hegin to colour, when a mulch- 

 ing of short dry manure may he 

 laid on the surface to keep in 

 the moisture, and so feed the 

 roots until the foliage is ripe. 

 The leaves should he kept on the 

 vines as long as possible ; but 

 when they begin to fall, their 

 daily removal will be necessary, 

 as decaying vegetable matter 

 always engenders damp, which 

 soon affects the berries. When 

 all the leaves have been cleared 

 away, let the whole surface of 

 the border be well covered with 

 dry bracken as an absorbent of 

 atmospheric moisture, and to 

 prevent dust from rising and 

 settling on the berries. Avoid 

 sweeping the floors when very 

 dry ; never admit a pot-plant 

 that will require water, and dis- 

 pense with fire heat as much 

 as possible, consistent with the 

 maintenance of a temperature 

 ranging from 45° to 50'^. 

 Look over the bunches every week for decaying 

 or defective berries, and ventilate freely, with fire 

 heat turned on when the external atmosphere is dry 

 and the warmth of the house is not likely to draw in 

 moisture. In damp, cold weather keep the house 

 close, and, if possible, almost dispense with fire heat, 

 as a temperature of 40° will not hurt the grapes if 

 they can be kept dry. If on such days gentle 

 warmth is found necessary, leave a crevice on each 

 light open at the top of the house ; but on no account 

 open the front, as a circulation would draw in a 

 stream of moist vapour. In low, cold, damp situa- 

 tions, these precautions are of more importance than 



Fig. 22.— Keeping Bundles in Bottles, 



on high, dry soils, hence the advantage of starting 

 all late houses early in the spring so as to avoid 

 much autumn firing, which does more harm than 

 good, as grapes so ripened never keep well. Exter- 

 nal borders should be well covered with dry bracken, 

 before the summer heat is di-awn or washed out of 

 them ; and glass lights, shutters, or, best of all, sheets 

 of corrugated iron, placed above and not touching 

 the fern, to keep out snow and rain. In this way 

 grapes can be kept in good con- 

 dition until March ; but this 

 system is now superseded by 

 bottling and keeping the fruit 

 in a properly arranged grape- 

 room. 



Preserving Grapes in 

 Bottles of Water. — We arc 



indebted to the French for this 

 excellent system, by means of 

 which the late kinds of grapes 

 can be kept fresh and plump, 

 and perfect in flavour, until the 

 end of May. In order to in- 

 sure success, it is important that 

 the grapes be thoroughl}* lipe 

 by the middle of SejDtember, 

 when the treatment recom- 

 mended in the preceding paper 

 will apply until Christmas, or 

 the first week in January-. As 

 nothing can be gained by allow- 

 ing them to hang after this 

 date, the room in which they 

 are to be preserved should be 

 prepared some little time in 

 advance, and well fired to expel 

 damp after the bottles are filled 

 and placed in position. To 

 those who have not had ex- 

 perience in the construction 

 of a grape-room, the follow- 

 ing hints may be of service. 

 Any dry, airy, well-ventilated store-room (if with 

 hollow walls and ceiled roof, so much the hetter) 

 will answer the purpose, the gi-eat object being the 

 maintenance of a dry, equable temperature, \vdthout 

 having recourse to much fire heat. The bottles 

 should be placed in racks, tier above tier, secured to 

 an inner wall, and they should lean forward at an 

 angle of about 45'^, as in the annexed engraving 

 (Fig. 22), so that the bunches may hang without 

 touching the rack or each other. A small, slow 

 combustion boiler placed outside, with a flow and 

 return pipe inside for expelling damp, and keeping 

 up the proper degree of warmth in very severe 



