October 21, 1880 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 8G5 
ftOMING EVENTS 'm 
21 st 
TH 
22 nd 
F 
23rd 
S 
Exhibition of Chrysanthemums in Finsbury Park. 
24th 
Sun 
24th Sunday after Trinity. 
25th 
M 
Sale of Bulbs at Mr. Stevens’ Rooms, Covont Garden. 
26 th 
Tu 
British Dairy Farmers’ Show at the Agricultural Hall, four days. 
27th 
W 
KEEPING GRAPES. 
( ^C^ OU wou ^ find ou * i y° ur mistake if you tried that 
plan at our place,” said a good old-fashioned 
gardener of more than average experience, on 
seeing some labourers deluging the inside 
borders of a house containing Grapes which 
had finished colouring, and this, too, on an au¬ 
tumn day, which could not be considered a fine 
one. When the visitor was assured that such work was 
commonly done on days which were too wet for outside 
work to be proceeded with his surprise was evidently 
great, and he made up his mind that Grape-growing was an 
easy matter excepting in the one locality where he had the 
misfortune to reside. In the Grape-room, w T here there was 
nothing but the natural soil for a floor, the same idea was 
uppermost. “ How could it be possible to prevent the moisture 
rising and settling on the fruit ?” And, again when a house 
containing ripe Grapes has to be filled with bedding plants, 
how is the decay of the fruit to be prevented ? 
It may be useful at the present time to enlarge a little on 
this subject, as cutting and preserving Grapes by inserting 
in water a portion of the stem on which the bunch is grown 
has become almost a general practice, and I think there is a 
tendency to resort to it unnecessarily early. There are great 
advantages, of course, in clearing a house of Grapes as soon as 
they are ripe. The fruit can be kept in a smaller space, and the 
house can be used for another purpose : but the principal ad¬ 
vantage in my opinion is, that the Vines can be pruned as soon 
as the leaves have ripened, and the process of exhaustion 
attending the carrying of a crop of fruit, as well as the subse¬ 
quent bleeding resulting from late pruning, is prevented. The 
latter advantages, which I put as the principal, can be attained 
by cutting the Grapes in December, and this I contend for all 
Vines which are not to be forced is sufficiently early, while for 
late thick-skinned Grapes, which are to be kept till April or 
May, the first week in the new year is soon enough. If the 
fruit is severed from the Vines while there is still a vigorous 
circulation going on the change is too great, and the fruit will 
not keep so well as if it had been allowed to hang till some of 
the foliage had ripened and fallen. As for a dry atmosphere 
being necessary for keeping or ripening fruit, I thought that 
idea had been long ago exploded ; but old notions die hard, and 
it may be that others besides my visitor still adhere to it. There 
would, I imagine, be no insurmountable difficulty in keeping 
Grapes over the full tank in the Victoria Regia house at Kew, 
provided I had the control of the heating and ventilating. 
The keeping of Grapes in the manner indicated is simplicity 
itself when understood. Never allow a very low temperature ; 
and wffien a high one is unavoidable, give all the ventilation 
possible before the rise takes place, and condensation, which is 
the chief cause of damping with fruit, flowers, and plants, will 
be prevented. It may be said that the more moisture the more 
danger there is. Perhaps so, but I have never seen a room so 
dry that condensation would not take place sufficiently to cause 
injury if you allowed the temperature to rise 10° or 15° very 
quickly, and I question if a moderately moist atmosphere 
which is not stagnant is not quite as good for keeping fruit as 
a dry one. If a fixed temperature anywhere between 35° and 
45° could be maintained with a buoyant atmosphere, I imagine 
nobody would have any difficulty in keeping Grapes ; but in the 
western counties especially we are subjected to great and rapid 
fluctuations during autumn, and it takes a considerable amount 
of skill and practical experience to be able to guard against 
any evil effects from them. 
It may be of use to some of your readers if I tell them that 
it is immaterial which end of the Vine shoot is inserted in the 
water. Sometimes a bunch is produced so close to the main 
rod that sufficient stem cannot be cut behind it to allow of its 
being inserted in the water. When this happens there is 
always sufficient length of w r ood beyond the bunch for this 
purpose, and it will make no difference to the keeping of the 
Grapes if the wood is placed upside down. I had at least a 
dozen bunches of Alicante inserted in this way last winter, 
some of which were the very last to be used, and that was on 
the 12th of May. I was led to try this plan on hearing that 
my friend Mr. Wildsmith, at Heckfield, had caused one of his 
Vines to grow the reverse way by pegging the top down, and 
when rooted to cut off its end which had the original roots.— 
William Taylor. 
COCOA-NUT FIBRE REFUSE. 
Since old Donald Beaton first made the value of this sub¬ 
stance known to horticulturists through the columns of the 
Cottage Gardener many years ago, hundreds of cultivators have 
proved its worth in various ways. Much was published relative 
to its merits some twenty years since, but latterly little reference 
has been made to it in the horticultural press, consequently 
there are many amateurs and others who are not now well 
acquainted with the uses of this material. To such an extent 
is this the case, that a firm which manufactures this refuse 
largely—Messrs. Chubb, Round, & Co., of Millwall, and who 
advertise it in the columns of the Journal—have received so 
many inquiries that they have found it necessary to adopt 
special measures for giving information on the subject. A 
gardening journal, however, is appropriate for circulating in¬ 
formation of this nature, and especially the Journal which was 
the means of introducing the material to the horticultural 
public. 
Now that bulbs are being potted and plunged to induce 
root-action, it will not be inopportune to direct attention to 
this valuable garden requisite. For amateurs generally, and 
those who have gardens in the vicinity of towns particularly, 
this article is indispensable. It is the best of all substitutes for 
leaf soil for mixing in composts for potting where a light in¬ 
gredient is required ; as a medium for plunging potted plants 
in it has no equal; and for propagating purposes it is employed 
largely and with the best possible results. Most of the Hya¬ 
cinths, Tulips, &c., that secure the prizes at the principal 
No. 17.—Yol. I., Third series. 
NO. 1673.—Yon. LXIY.i OLD SERIES. 
