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Four stout cashew posts were inserted into the ground four feet apart ; 

 a piece of 4 by 4 pitch pine scantling fastened on the top of this served 

 as an end for the arbour ; a similar erection was made 25 feet from the 

 first, from one to the other wire was stretched 18 inches apart. The 

 front of the arbour is 4 feet 6 inches high and the back six feet this 

 giving a nice slope ; across the wires thus stretched the vines are trained 

 in exactly the same way as they were over the sticks, exc pt that they 

 are trained parallel with the sticks and the opposite over the wires.. 

 At the first time of pruning the plants which had made a cane after 

 being cut buck to the ground, all the side growths were cut off close to 

 the main cane, a stronger growth being secured from the large bud 

 which is always present at the base of the first la'eral growths than from 

 the first lateral growth itself. With the older plants I tried various 

 lengths of pruning the lateral growths, some were pruned back to within 

 two or even one eye of the main growth, some were left four, five and 

 even six joints in length. This I did as I had frequently b -en told that 

 the close system of pruning, ae practised in English hot houses could not 

 be carried out with success in Jamaica, but as far as can be seen at pre- 

 sent it did not make the slightest difference in any way. What the 

 effects on the vines may be next year I do not venture to predict. 



I have said nothing about watering, but at Hope it would be folly to 

 attempt to grow grapes unless they can be well watered. We water 

 thoroughly twice a week, and if by any chance this was neglected the 

 effects of the neglect could be noticed at once. Although growth did 

 not stop entirely, the rapid rate of growth was checked. As an in- 

 stance of how rapidly grape vines will grow, I may mention that a cut 

 back plant of Gros Colmar last year grew 23 inches in eight days. 



The question of how to grow the vines has been effectually solved,, 

 the production of fruit however is not so easy ; but will I think have 

 to be solved by the selection of suitable variet ies. Nearly all the best 

 European varieties can be made to produce fruit, but the question of 

 ripening the fruit properly is still largely a problem. 



A properly ripened bunch of grapes is one on which every berry ia 

 ripened at one time. Of the white grapes which we have grown I 

 think that the Muscats are the only ones worth growing to any extent, 

 these ripen up easily and uniformly. 



We have grown other white grapes the best of which are Raisin de 

 Calabre and Foster's Seedling, but neither of these can be compared to 

 the Muscat, either for quality or for productiveness. Another great 

 point in favour of the Muscats is that they require very little thinning, 

 a most tedious process with most varieties. Black grapes are not 

 favourites in Jamaica for what reason I cannot tell, except perhaps that 

 with nearly all the black grapes about five times more berries grow on 

 each bunch than can possibly find room to grow to maturity thus 

 necessitating a lot of thinning. If this is not done and at exactly the 

 Tight time the bunches are spoiled. Some Black Hamburghs which 

 we pruned at Hope in November last ripened some very nice bunches 

 in April this year ; these were exhibited at Dr. Morris' lecture at the 

 Collegiate Hall. This variety however gives us a lot of trouble ; mildew 

 growing on nearly every bunch. 



Black Hamburgh is perhaps the finest flavoured of all the black 

 grape 8. 



