442 IMPROVEMENT OF GRAPES BY CROSS IMPREGNATION. 
the parent tree, except by the chance admixture of the pollen of supe¬ 
rior sorts which were growing near and in flower at the same time. It 
is probable, therefore, that if pains were taken to form an union of 
those properties which distinguish the different sorts now in cultiva¬ 
tion, new varieties, partaking of both properties so brought together, 
might be an improvement. 
But what are the properties of grape-vines? We answer, hardiness 
for training in the open air, prolificacy, size of bunches, size of berries, 
high flavour, juiciness and melting character of the pulp; to which may 
be added, earliness in arriving at perfection. 
Hardiness, in this northern climate, is a valuable property of a vine, 
because it is only in our finest and warmest summers that grapes ripen 
so as to be at all eatable. The very earliest, as the Sweet-Water, the 
Burgundy, and Miller’s Burgundy, and a few others, can only be 
depended upon to ripen on open walls, a majority of the superior sorts 
rarely arriving at passable ripeness without the assistance of fire-heat. 
With respect to those hardy and early sorts, it should be the object 
of the improver to give greater size of bunches and berries to the Bur¬ 
gundy, and higher flavour to the Sweet-Water, by matching the first 
with the Hamburghs, the Lombardy, or the St. Peter’s, and the second 
with the Frontignans or Muscats. Intermediate progeny would pro¬ 
bably inherit the earliness of the first, and the amplitude or flavour of 
the second varieties. 
Some varieties of grape-vines are more prolific than others under the 
Same circumstances of age, soil, situation, temperature, and general 
management. When a rank of vines in the same house are all equally 
thrifty as to growth, and sharing equally all the necessary appliances 
of air, light, and heat, so that their bearing-wood shall be all well and 
perfectly ripened, yet, in this case, we shall find that the trees are not 
equally prolific. While the Black Hamburgh presents us with two, 
three, or even frequently four bunches from each eye that bursts, the 
Lombardy shows only a comparatively small number of bunches 
sparingly scattered over the whole tree. The same defect is often 
noticed in the bunches themselves, some sorts of grapes setting and 
swelling-off every berry, as we see in the Black Hamburgh; others 
with half the berries diminutive and seedless, as exemplified in the 
Sweet-Water when forced, the Black Lisbon, and the Damascus. 
Various opinions have been advanced accounting for the cause of 
these defects; but it is most generally attributed to the imperfect state 
of the sexual organs, and chiefly of the non-bursting of the anthers, by 
which a too-small quantity of pollen is distributed, and consequently 
the germens remain unfecundified. This is satisfactorily proved by the 
