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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



houses by following the system advocated— namely, by utilising 

 sun-heat to ensure an early start, for loss of time cannot be made 

 up in autumn in these houses ; indeed, in some degree it cannot 

 be made up in heated vineries without disadvantage to both 

 fruit and plants. 



Disbudding and Stopping. — Prompt attention to disbudding 

 and stopping is important, for it is a waste of the vine's strength 

 to allow growth to be produced more freely than needed, and 

 then to remove a quantity of it at a time after the mischief is 

 done. A close watch should be kept to avoid this, as, though 

 other points may bo comparatively immaterial, attention or 

 neglect in this means more or less of success or of failure. A 

 moderate number of healthy, vigorous, well-developed leaves will 

 do much more good work than a crowded mass of thin weakly 

 leaves produced on attenuated and distorted shoots struggling for 

 existence close against the glass ; and the difference in the work 

 done will show itself plainly when the time for colouring 

 approaches. The removal of some shoots and the stopping of 

 others requires much judgment and experience in dealing with 

 the late varieties, for some of them need more and longer growth 

 than others, especially where the foliage is thin. Another matter 

 is that white Grapes, especially Muscats, need more exposure 

 to light than black varieties, and this must be remembered in 

 disbudding. The necessity for care in tying down the growths 

 as they advance, and the importance of doing so gradually, or 

 waiting until the brittle stage is passed, is familiar to all. 



Flowering and Setting. — Most of the late varieties usually 

 grown produce flowers and pollen freely and set satisfactorily ; 

 but with some, like the Muscat of Alexandria, Alnwick Seedling, 

 and others, artificial help is necessary. With the Muscat and a 

 few others all the aid required is to distribute their own pollen by 

 shaking the vines when the flowers are fully expanded, or gently 

 rubbing them with the hand or with a small soft brush, and if 

 the flowers are in the right state this is usually sufficient. But 

 with those of the Alnwick Seedling type pollen must be taken 

 from other sorts which produce it freely, and transferred by 

 means of a camel's-hair brush or feather to the stigma of the 

 flowers it is wished to set. A small quantity is sufficient, but it 

 must be done carefully and thoroughly, when the pollen is dry and 

 powdery and the stigma moist, as imperfect setting not only 



