164 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
t J ULY, 
Cherry, and Apricot. The instructions are plain and practical, and the informa¬ 
tion sound and useful. Mr. Glenny has simply added a few laudatory phrases. 
THINNING GRAPES. 
F there is one gardening operation more tedious and irksome than another to 
amateurs, it is that of Thinning Grapes ; yet it is an operation that forbids 
neglect and brooks no delay, if even a fair crop of the luscious fruit is to 
be secured. Nature, ever bountiful, is so profuse in the matter of the set¬ 
ting of grapes, that when by high culture or careful 
attention we add to the natural size of the berries, it is |J 
imperative, if we would prevent them from spoiling each u 
other, that we should give them extra space to swell in. 
The experienced gardener, when he sets about 
thinning Grapes, takes his scissors, and aided by the 
thumb and finger of his left hand, he manipulates the 
clusters with more or less expertness. It is, however, 
impossible even for him to avoid rubbing and touching 
the remaining berries to some extent; a less expert 
manipulator would be likely to endanger the appearance 
of the berries, by disturbing their waxy coating of bloom. 
An ingenious little implement, which does away with 
the necessity for handling Grapes whilst thinning them, 
SI 
has been devised, for his own convenience, by Mr. 
Chapman, of Nottingham. This contrivance, which is 
remarkably simple and perfect in its working, and which 
greatly facilitates the operation of Grape-thinning, is a 
“holdfast,” made of a thin narrow strip of deal or 
other light wood, cut to a convenient length, one end 
being bluntly pointed, and indented with a few irregu¬ 
lar, unequal notches, as shown at a in the woodcut, 
all the sharp edges being pared off. When in use, it is 
taken in the left hand, the point introduced amongst 
the ramifications of the cluster, which one by one are 
lifted out clear from the remainder, being caught by one 
or other of the notches, and that without touching a 
berry, or injuring the fruit in the slightest degree. While 
the shoulder or branch of the cluster is thus held lightly 
but securely, the supernumerary berries are cut away ; 
the holdfast is then gently unhooked, and passed on to 
the stalk of another bunch. There is no angering of the 
bunches or berries, and the operation of thinning can be the shoulders of the bunches, 
carried on quite as rapidly and as easily as if the fingers alone were in requisition. 
Mr. Chapman has another equally facile contrivance for supporting the shoul- 
