100 
THE FLOKIST AND POMOLOG1ST. 
the Canon Hall grown successfully here are not on their own roots, but are 
worked on stocks of the common Hamburgh and Muscadine. 
This, as a White Grape, and the true Champion Black Hamburgh, are the 
two varieties of Grapes held in the highest estimation here; their size of 
berries agrees so well together, and is so much superior to that of ordinary 
Grapes, the latter looking quite diminutive alongside of them. 
The great drawback to the general cultivation of the Canon Hall Muscat, is 
that few r growers succeed in setting the bunches so as to be worth anything: 
however, Mr. Edlington has made a great discovery,* which seems to be very 
conclusive. In planting a vinery, some inside and some outside, two Canon 
Halls were planted inside of the house entirely, and one outside. Those with 
their roots in the warm, dry border inside, bore perfect bunches of Grapes, no 
artificial means being applied ; on the contrary, the Yine with its roots in the 
cold border outside had not a perfect bunch upon it. This is conclusive in 
favour of warm or heated borders for a good many of our finer-constitutioned 
varieties of Grapes. 
I have found that the Canon Hall is much more certain of fruiting grown 
on young wood than on the close spur-system, and as far as I have seen I have 
found the Champion Black Hamburgh to bear best under a similar treatment. 
They are both robust and strong-wooded sorts inclining to have a large pith in 
the heart of the wood, and then the spurs seldom ripen w r ell. When the 
young rods are quite brown and apparently ripe in the wood, the spurs are 
generally half green, and are not to be depended on for fruiting. 
I have proved that the Canon Hall has no occasion for an extraordinary 
heat to set it. I have several of them growing along with the common Ham¬ 
burgh, which sets equally well with those in a Muscat temperature. I have 
impregnated the bunches, when in bloom, of the Canon Hall with free-setting 
sorts, marked the bunches so operated on, and could see little difference 
between impregnated and those not so. It then struck me that as these 
Canon Hall bunches have an enormous quantity of flower-buds, double to any 
other Yine, I would thin one or two previously to their coming into flower, 
thinking that if there was a lack of pollen in the thick bunches, or any defi¬ 
ciency in strength, this might improve its powers, and make them set better. 
This I found effectual, with the exception of gently tapping the rods when in 
bloom. This I have found to answer well. It is rather a difficult task—the 
thinning at this early stage—but they do not need much after. It is advisable 
to delay thinning till the bunch begins to expand its buds for blooming; they 
are more easily got at then. 
I fancy the Canon Hall, and some more of these varieties of Vines that 
grow so robustly, and ripen their wood indifferently, when planted in a rick 
outside border, would be much more certain to bear were they grown in a 
poorer soil. I would say, Have the one-half of the border composed of small 
refuse from a whinstone quarry, or, failing that, say a larger proportion of 
burned earth, or old lime rubbish. This would encourage a multiplicity of 
fibry roots. When grown in a richer soil it is more liable to lose its spongy 
roots suddenly, and grows large hollow wood, which is difficult to mature. 
Grown in the poorer soil the result is a mass of short fibry roots, then short- 
jointed, well-filled eyes, the forerunners of productiveness. In rich soil, on 
the contrary, it is, in comparison, similar to corn grown in a soft mossy soil— 
vigorous, but unproductive. I consider we have erred, and incurred extra 
expenses, in our cold, sunless, northern climate, by aiming too much at getting 
strong wood and vigorous growth, much to the deterioration of maturing the 
wood and buds. 
Were our Peach trees, and many others, grown less exuberantly, I believe 
