LATE -KEEPING GRAPES. 



233 



course this is opposed to the rigid system expounded by the 

 writers of former days, but most of the best growers now follow 

 what is here recommended with better results than by adhering 

 to the drying process to such an extreme. 



Outside borders are greatly benefited by the heavy warm 

 rains of early autumn, and all the protection needed is in the case 

 of a long continuance of cold rains later on, or to prevent snow 

 saturating the soil and reducing its temperature. With these 

 exceptions, the less outside borders are covered the better, as it 

 only prevents the aeration so necessary to the roots in most 

 stages, or the complete rest needed at another. In this, as in 

 all other gardening operations, judgment must be exercised in 

 accordance with circumstances, rather than attempting to follow 

 an absolute rule. If borders are both inside and out, it is 

 desirable to provide for something like uniformity of temperature 

 in the soil about the differently placed roots, and then outside 

 protection is helpful. 



The removal of the Grapes to a special room for preservation, 

 which is now commonly adopted in private gardens, releases the 

 cultivator from many restrictions ; the pruning can be performed 

 earlier, and we are enabled to get our vines into condition for 

 starting in good time. Late Grapes require a long season of 

 growth, and when they are started late it usually happens that 

 the colouring and finishing are late also ; the fire-heat is in- 

 creased to forward the process, and growth is continued too long, 

 at the expense both of the fruit and the vines — immature foliage, 

 and wood with corresponding weakness, being the result. When 

 Grapes are borne by vines having well-ripened leaves and stems 

 they colour far better and keep plump much longer. This, at 

 least, has been my experience, and it is confirmed by many other 

 Grape-growers. 



The pruning being completed — and it does not matter whether 

 the extension or the spur system is adopted ; in the one case we 

 prune to the best ripened sound wood, and in the other to the 

 best buds— the next consideration is to obtain as early a start as 

 the vines will " break " naturally and strongly without forcing 

 (as the word is ordinarily understood), and if the start is made 

 in a fine March or early April, little aid by fire-heat is requisite 

 to secure the temperature of 50° to 55° as a minimum. Useful 

 and saleable late Grapes can be satisfactorily grown in unheated 



