1808. ] 
ON KEEPING GRAPES AFTER RIPENING. 
21 
during thunderstorms, may collect round the trees and pass through the 
soil among the roots, thus giving the trees a good watering at the very 
time they require it. 
Fruit trees of all kinds may now he pruned. Pear and Apple trees have 
frequently too much wood left in them, especially old trees. The present 
is a good time to prune and thin them out. Old spurs should also he well 
thinned-out when they are crowded in the branches, as well as the buds on 
the spurs. It is not unusual at this time of the year, especially after a 
season like the past, when the Apple crop was a light one, to see from 
twenty to forty blossom buds on an old spur, where one, or at most two, 
would he sufficient. When all these blossom buds expand they rob the 
tree, and though the crop may he large the fruit will he small and worth¬ 
less. But the evil does not end there: the following season there is no crop 
of fruit. When the trees are properly pruned, and the spurs and buds 
judiciously thinned, there will he in general a fair crop of fine fruit every 
year, one bushel of which is worth more than four bushels of the fruit from 
trees that bear excessive crops. 
All late Vines should be pruned at once, that they may have a proper 
rest. Any Grapes that may be on the Vines may be cut off with a piece 
of wood, and put in bottles and placed in the fruit room. Vines that are 
breaking should have air at all favourable opportunities, and the tempera¬ 
ture should be gradually raised to 60° at night, which will be sufficient until 
they are in bloom, when it should be 65° at night. The day temperature 
should be 10° to 15° higher. 
Stourton Park. M. Saul. 
[y 
ID 
ON KEEPING GRAPES AFTER RIPENING. 
y^F late there has been a great deal of talk about keeping Grapes. 
Some advocate the plan of putting the stalks in bottles of water, as 
they do in France, while others recommend hanging the clusters in 
a moderately dry room. Now, it is plain to me, from the remarks 
which have recently been made in contemporary publications, and 
also from what I myself saw when in France four years ago, that we should 
not go there to learn either how to grow Grapes, or to keep them. In the 
first place, the bunches cannot be cut and handled without doing them some 
damage, especially in respect to the colour, if they be black. Then they 
must necessarily want looking over, to remove bad or decaying berries from 
the bunch, when they must again sustain damage, so that more injury will 
be done by handling, than they would have suffered if they had been left on 
the Vine. 
It is well known that in many places in England Grapes are to be 
found in March or April as fine in appearance, and as well kept, as they 
were in the previous October. I myself cut some Alicantes and Lady 
