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XVIII. An Account of a Method of hastening the Maturation 

 of Grapes. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S. $c. By John Williams, Esq. 



Read May 3, 1808. 



Sir, 



It is a fact well known to gardeners, that Vines, when ex- 

 posed in this climate to the open air, although trained to walls 

 with southern aspects, and having every advantage of judi- 

 cious culture, in the ordinary course of our seasons ripen 

 their fruit with difficulty. This remark, however, though true 

 in general admits of some exceptions, for I have occasionally 

 seen trees of the common White Muscadine, and Black Cluster 

 Grapes, that have matured their fruit very well, and earlier by 

 a fortnight or three weeks, than others of the same kinds, and 

 apparently possessing similar advantages of soil and aspect. 



The Vines that ripened the fruit thus early, I have gene- 

 rally remarked, were old trees having trunks eight or ten feet 

 high, before their bearing branches commenced. It occurred 

 to me, that this disposition to ripen early, might be occa- 

 sioned by the dryness and rigidity of the vessels of the old 

 trunk, obstructing the circulation of that portion of the sap, 

 which is supposed to descend from the leaf. And to prove 

 whether or not my conjectures were correct, I made incisions 

 through the bark on the trunks of several Vines growing in 

 my garden, removing a circle of bark from each, and thus 

 leaving the naked alburnum above an inch in width com- 



