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ON SOME EXPERIMENTS IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 
i 
young. His system was to let them be at least five years old before he took a full crop off 
them. It is certainly pleasing to see vines show well when two or three years old, and few 
can withstand the temptation of letting a few bunches remain, yet it is a great error, and 
more young vines are ruined by over-cropping than any other management. 
To show how much the vine is influenced by soil, I may here state that the original 
vine of the Black Damascus, at Worksop Manor, grew near a heap of old coal ashes and 
prospered amazingly as soon as its roots struck into them ; in forming a border to grow a 
house of the same variety here, I made it very light with coal and wood ashes, and they 
have grown as well as could have been desired. This variety is one of our noblest black- 
grapes, being thin-skinned and having a rich vinous flavour, but it is in general a shy 
bearer and uncertain setter ; here, however, it is as prolific as the Black Hambro, and forms 
fine bunches of large perfect berries. At Welbeck, most of the grapes are grown in 
chambered borders, and we have as much control over their roots as far as regards watering, 
drainage, and covering, as if they were grown in pots. 
The berries of the Chassales Musque, another excellent white grape, is very apt to crack 
at the ripening process ; this may be quite or partly prevented if it is grown in light soil and 
well-drained border, and kept rather dry when ripening; this can be easily done when 
grown in chambered borders, for a thorough control is then to be had over the roots. 
I never find any difficulty in setting the Black Damascus, Dutch Sweetwater, Horse- 
forth’s Seedling and the Muscats ; by keeping a rather dry temperature at the time of flower- 
ing, and brushing over the bunches with the hand at the driest and warmest time of the day, 
the capsules are disturbed and the pollen dispersed ; when time can be spared it is a good 
plan to thin out some of the unopened flowers in the inside of the bunches of the Black 
Damascus and Muscats, it strengthens the others left and they set better. 
As good new seedling grapes are rare (indeed it is hardly possible to excel some of the 
old sorts), one that has lately made some sensation, named Josling’s St. Albans, has fruited 
a bunch with me ; it is apparently of the same parentage as the Chassales Musque, namely 
a cross between the white Frontignac and the Sweetwater, and will I fear have the same 
fault of cracking — the flavour likewise is similar to some new kinds of Muscats. Other 
grapes picked up by Mr. Bivers on the continent have been sent me by that gentleman to 
prove, but I have only as yet succeeded in fruiting a small hardy black grape named Hatif 
de Jura ; it ripens a week or two before Miller’s Burgundy, and bears finer and larger 
bunches, and will succeed well in ordinary summers in the midland counties on open walls 
and cottage gables, it has the peculiarity when ripening of colouring in spots and patches. 
Another new grape I had from Portugal, under the name of San Jasse de Santarem, is an 
excellent early black grape with large loose bunches and flavoured like the purple Constantia. 
A late white grape is grown here under the name of the Trebiana, marked to have come 
from Mr. Beaton ; it hangs a month after the Muscats and nearly as late as the West’s 
St. Peter’s, and is therefore desirable on that account ; it seems to have originated between 
the Muscat and Syrian, and is not a bad grape when perfectly ripe. 
