The vine-dresser's theoretical and practical manual

Front matter

THE

VINE-DRESSER'S

THEORETICAL, AND PRACTICAL

Chapter 1. History of the Vine

Chap. IL Description of the Vine and its Varieties. 13

1. Early Black Morillon, 15

2. The Miller's Grape, 17

3. The Black Burgundy f 18

4. The Tinto Grape, ib.

5. Small Garnet, ib.

6. Pearl Grape, 19

7. Blue Girkin, ib.

8. White Giiset, 20

9. Morillon, ib.

10. U^ite Mornain, ib.

11. The Muscat, 21

12. The Chasselas, 22

1 3. Cioutat or Parsley-leaved, ib.

14. The Corinth, ib.

15. Aleppo Grape, * 23

16. The Gouais, ib.

17. The Verjuice Grape, 24

18. Of other Species and Varieties, ib.

Chap. III. Of the Soils and Exposures Suitable to the Grape, 26

IV. The Culture of the Vine, 32

1. Of the Tall-Stock or Running Vine, ib

2. Of the Lo20'Stock, 33

Contents,

Page.

4. Pyramid Training^ 35

5. TreUisc Training, 39

Chap. V. O71 the Selection and Setting Out of Slips, 41

VI. Of the Tillage of the Vine, 46

Vn. Of the Manuring of the Vine, • 4S

VIII. Of the Influence of the Weather on the Vine and

its Products f 51

IX. On the Means of Renewing Vines and Vineyards 53

1. Of Layering, ib.

2. Of Intrenching, e* 54

3. Of Barking, 55

Chap. X. 0?^ Pruning, „5 56

XI. Of Clipping or Budding, 61

XII. Of Propping or Supporting, 63

XIII. Of Tying or Binding, 65

XIV. Of Topping, 66

XV. Of Girdling, 67

XVI. Of Grafting, 72

XVII. Of Leafing, 76

BOOK SECOND. Diseases and Casualties Affecting the Vine ; loith the

Means of Prevention and Cure,

Chap. I. Of Frost, 77

2. Of Hail Storms 78

3. Of Fogs 79

4. Of the Flush or Plethora, SO

5. Of the Goupillure or Stint, ib.

6. Of the Mildews, 81

7. Of Cankers, ih.

8. Diseases of the Leaves, The Blast, the Rust, and

the Yelloics,

9. Thp. Blight or Barrenness of the Blossom, 82

Chap. II, Of Animals that Attack the Vine, 83 1 Of Quadrupeds, ia

2. Of Birds, ib.

3. Of Snails, 84

Chap. III. Of Insects that Attack the Vine, 85

1. The Melolontho, ib^

COSTEKTS.

Page

2. The Cryptocephalus vitis, 86

3. The Weevil, 87

4. The Red Chrysomda, ib.

5. The Coccinella globosa, ib.

7. The Mantis religiosa or Camel-Cricket, ib.

8. The Red-winged Cricket — .icrydium stridulum . . ib.

9. The Chermes zitis, or Vinc-Fretter, ib.

10. The Wasp, 89

11. The Pyralis or Silver-moth, lb.

12. The Tinea or Miner-xcorm, 90

13. The Sphinx, ih.

14. The Tinea of the Clvster. 91

Chap. I. Of the Vintage, , 9-2

II. Of Stemming the Grapes, 95

III. Of Crushing the Grapes, 97

IV. Of the Vinous Fermentation, 9«)

V. Of the Wine Vessels, Vats, ^-c 104

VI. Of the Duration of the Fermentative Process, . . . 106

VII. Of the Wine-Press, 110

VIII. Of the Wine-CcUar, HI

IX. Of the Management of the Wine in Casks 112

X. Of Racking, , 114

XI. Of Fining, 116

Xir, Of the Siilphurijig or Stumming of Wines 117

XIII. Of Bottling, 118

1. Quality of the Coring, 119

2. Of Securing the Corks, /J.

3 Of Piling the Bottles, ih.

Chap. XIV. Of the Mixture of Wines 120

XV. Of the Degenerations and Alterations of Wine, . . 122

1. Of Roping, , ib.

2. Of Acidity, 123

X Of Bitterness, 124

Contents

Page

4. Loss of Colour or Turbidness, 124

5. Of Pricking, 125

6. Of Mustiness, 126

7. Of Freezing, ib.

8. Of Sediment, 127

BOOK FOURTH. _ Of Brandies

I. Of the Selection of Wines, 129

II. Economical Method of Dist 'l .don, 131

III. Various Sorts of Brandy, 133

IV. Directions for .Attending to the Still, 134

V. Uses of the Murk, 137

BOOK FIFTH. Domestic Uses of the Vine Crop

Chaf. 1. Uses of the Leaves and the Sap, 141>y

II. Domestic Uses of the Vine, 142

III. Various Uses of the Must, 145

IV. Various Sorts of Made-wines, 148

1. Made-ioines, ih.

2. Cordial Wines, 149

3. Straw-wines, 150

4. Sparkling Wine, 151

5. Rose Wine ib.

6. Rape Wine 152

Chap. V. Of Vinegar 153

Domestic Vinegar ib.

Distilled Vinegar 154

Aromatic Vinegar ib.

Sallad Vinegar ib.

Vinegar Syrup ib.

BOOK SIXTH, AND LAST. Brief hints on the diseases incidental to the Vine-Dresser . . 155

Explanation of the Plate i.

Vine Shears. ih.

Contents.

(^uentin Durand's Girdler j.

Bellinger's Cutting Kippers ii.

Acker's Machine for Crushing the Grape ib.

Guerin's Machine for Crushing the Grape iii

Syphon for Filling Cables Hi

Syphon or Funnel for Emptying Bottles iiii.

THE

VINE-DRESSER'S

THEORSTXCAL & PRACTXGAZ. MANUAL,

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF THE TTXE.

The plant that bears the grape is one of those that has been for many centuries under the closest cultivation. It was first disseminated over the earth by the Ethiopic colonies ; from the Ethiopians the Arabians received it, and from the latter it passed into Judea. Then following the coast of the Mediterranean it flourished in Egypt, Syria, the shores of Ionia, Greece, Spain and Italy. The abovestated progression of the vine is drawn from the most authentic circumstantial evidence.

All knowledge of the first application of the vine to its present object is denied us ; of that, as of every useful invention necessary to our actual comforts, we enjoy the benefits, without concerning ourselves about the benefactor. If we must assign some probable period for the discovery, we will place it as far back, as the very first cultivation of the earth by tillage. The vine, in the very birth of society, must have been an object of importance sufficient to fix the attention, and arouse the industry of man. Mythology availed itself of this ignorance of the first adoption of the vine, to give it a miraculous origin, and to form fabulous accounts of the period, circumstances, and uses of the discovery.

We should like to be able to say who it was that introduced it into France, and at what date. But those who have busied themselves with the antiquities of Gaul, can only draw vague conjectures from the contradictory accounts of Greek and Latin writers. According to Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. xii. cap. \.) the first who made known the vine and its juice, and the advantages of its cultivation, was a Helvetian, named Helicon, who having made his fortune at Rome, wished, on leaving Italy, to enrich his own country, and those parts of Galha he should pass through, with the knowledge of this precious plant. Plutarch and Livy, on the contrary, affirm that it was aTuscan emigrant, who in revenge for his exile and expatriation intoxicated some Gauhsh chieftains with the finest ItaUan wines ; and by this temptation engaged them and their armed tribes to undertake the pillage and sack of Rome, and possess themselves of the Peninsula. The opinion of Cicero seems more to the purpose ; he t h inks the introduction of the Vine due to the interchanges brought about by commerce ; a sentiment confirmed by Varro, Strabo and Juhus Caesar. Diodorus of Sicily tells us the same, and that in the most positive manner. Justin is another witness in its favor ; he declares that the Phocian colony of Marseilles brought with them to their asylima from tyranny, the Vine, which they had cultivated at home with such signal success.

What or when its origin, at least we are certain that from the first of its appearance in France, the cultivation spread into every disposable corner, wherever a fitting soil and exposure, and active arms and spirits were to be found. Its rapid adoption and progress excited the jealousy of Rome, who, under pretence of preventing the recurrence of famine, decreed that the vine-yards should be turned into wheat fields ; and by a second edict, aimed directly at this merciless object, ordered a general grubbing up of the Vine throughout the territories of Gaul. This took place A. D. 92. It was so rigorously executed, that the inhabitants were obliged to resort to metheghn, beer, and fermented drinks, such as had been in use before the introduction oi' the grape. This inroad on private rigiits was not committed with impunity. The yeomanry, whose sturdy arms draw from the soil the nourishment of a country, are prompt to resist the tyranny that would grind them to the earth ; they are not patient abiders of the yoke and fetter. The ferocious Domitian, who had decreed the extirpation of the Vine, was forewarned of his fate in the follov;ing distich ; When thou shalt have gnawed me down to the root, (says the Vine to the goat browsing among her branches ) I still shall bear fruit enough for a libation to be poured at the immolation of our Emperor."

I repeat it, the prevention of dearth was only a pretence made use of to render Gaul entirely tributary to Italy, and to take from her the high reputation she had gained by her wines, which were in request among the most distant nations ; for tlie edict was kept in force for two centuries. It wa? not until A. i). 283 that Probu.? restored the culture to our ancestors. The restoration was one long festival of rejoicings, and every possible display of exultation. Soldiers, old men, women, and children, all united in the delightful labour of regenerating the richest resource of the land. All seemed possessed with a spontaneous eagerness to help in the task of breaking up the soil ; grubbing out the decayed, useless stocks ; digging trenches, and sfttting out the hill-sides, once more, with the cherished and long regretted plant. From the testimony of contemporary annalists, it was a festive sight to witness the population of whole villages, swarming forth into the fields, and beating the ground with frolicsome dances, making the air ring with songs and shouts, and in the midst of the frankest merriment, restoring to the glebe, the plant which had been forbidden to decorate it with its grateful shade and rich fertility for so long a revolution of seasons.

From that period, the vine, which had never been cultivated north of the Cevennes, spread along the banks of the Rhone, the Saone, and even to the shores of the Seine, the Marne, the Moselle, the Scheldt and the Rhine ; becoming an object to the great land owners as well as to the petty proprietor and cultivator.

The wild and baleful expeditions to the East, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, brought us from Cyprus, Alexandria, Corinth and Palestine, grape-vine slips of an excellent species, till then unkno^\^l to us. They were planted at the foot of the Pyrennees^ and from them we have the wines of Frontignac, Lunel, Rivesaltes, and others.

The Vine continued to extend over every part of France, and threw open a rich department to commerce. But in 1556, a new proscription arrested it. It was said that it drew attention from tillage ; and that vineyards encroached on the proportion of ground that should be dedicated to the plough and the reaping-hook. The vines were again torn up, and the hills laid bare of their embowering verdure. Eleven rears after the law v/as revoked ; and the Vine was allowed free grcv. th until the beginning of the eighteenth century, when agriculture being depreciated and debased by the heavy taxes and imposts of the times, and the low esteem in which the most useful class of the country was held, all sorts of cultivation languished ; the blame of which was laid on the luxuriant and teeming vineyards, lovely with fertihty in spite of neglect. A royal decree forbade the setting out of new slips, or the giving the least care to such as had been out of training for two years, under penalty of a fine of $600 ( 3000 franks. ) Far from remedying the evil, it only added to the sum of misery and distress, as is ever the case with proscription, that blindest and most headlong of measures ; indeed, no interdict ever yet proved wholesome or salutary that was laid on any branch of commerce ; and agriculture, the nurse of traffic, can least be expected to thrive, without a latitude and encouragement being given her, so wide and so thorough, that she has no obstacle or thwart to abide, save those disasters of the seasons of which Providence is the sole judge and giver.

Thft revolution of 1789, which restored to each owner of the soil the full exercise of his discretion over his own rightful possessions, has put an end for ever to the mischievous system of restraints and restrictions, and taught that private advantage is public interest. Industry is now free to create and continue resources of wealth, without fear of the bugbear of national evil. This liberal system of legislation gives us the power of satisfying the home market for consumption, and producing an adequate supply for exportation ; an advantage of which we can scarcely be again deprived, even should the iniquitous intent enter the conception of some foe to social rights.

Chapter II

The Vine belongs to the natural order, Sarmentosm, a family of plants with stem-like branches. The class is pentandria monogynia ; leaves alternate, palmated, five lobed, more or less distinctly incised or dentated : green or blueish ; with flowers in clusters, opposite to the leaves, supported by a common peduncle, which turns a to tendril if the blossom fails. The flowers are small, greenish ; the calyx very small, whole and five toothed ; the corolla is formed of five deciduous petals, sometimes united together at their summits like a crown, and shed without being disunited. The stamens are five in number, opposite to the petals ; their filaments subulate ( bent like an awl ) and supporting simple anthers. No style ; stigmata sessile ( close set ) in a five-chambered ovary. This ovary becomes a round or oval berry, juicy, unilocular when ripe, with five stony seeds, two, three, or four of which are abortive .

The fruit is only borne on the shoots of the year, and generally at the fifth, sixth and seventh joint ; so that if the seventh joint has made its appearance without sign of fruit, none need be expected from that shoot.

The species or varieties of the vine are very numerous. Their names must long remain obscure and empirical, in a measure ; for the labor of arranging them in some regular nomenclature is greater than can be imagined ; it can only be accomplished by the concurrence of agricultural societies. It has been attempted for the vineyard of Arbois ( Jura ) by Dumont, corresponding member of the Linnaean Society of Paris ; and in Spain for the Vines of Andalusia, by a distinguished and learned naturalist, Dn. Simon Rojas Clemente ; their works only convince us how long we must be condemned to wait for the completion of this interesting portion of the history of the Vine. The same names are attached frequently to distinct varieties ; and often, the one variety is so altered or detoriated by different modes of cultivation, soil and exposures, that it cannot be known by the name. To obtain a clear summary of these varieties some certain rules or designations should be chosen, and the value of the characteristics taken to calculate upon, should be fixed and established.

The roots are partly penetrating, partly running, and thickly fringed with capillary threads. The stem is cylindrical, thin in proportion to its length, and requires support. When young, the stem is more or less strongly divided and marked by joints or bends. A smgle plant of the vine is sometimes termed a slip, sometimes a stock ; the latter name is more particularly given to that part of the vine which answers to the trzink in trees ; in the wild state, there is no certain rate of length or thickness, both seeming to depend on accident ; but they are regulated by the vine-dresser, according to his mode of cultivation. The stock when young, is covered with a green or tawny bark, which becomes brown with age ; it is uneven in thickness, and irregular in adherence to the wood ; most frequently seamed and split lengthwise, and loosened from the wood in long, narrow layers or overlapping parcels, which are in the end entirely started and swept away by the wind and rain. In cold countries the bark is more compact, and more even.

From the stock or trunk, spring the shoots or branches, stem-like, sometimes forked, smooth; of a reddish grey in the woody fibre, and green in the herbaceous portion ; their number very various, and the length indeterminate, only, that those growing upward, are shorter than the lateral shoots which run horizontally ; and these again are shorter than the lowermost, which trail on the ground. The thickness is generally proportionate to that of the stock or trunk. In the shoots of the season, or yearling branches, the pith fills the whole ring of the woody part ; the next year the wood is thicker and the pith less ; the third year, there is only a trace of pith, and in the fourth year the wood is solid.

The short twigs springing from the principal branches, are termed secondaries or second-shoots ; if the sap be poor and scanty, there will be, on the shoots, many buds or beads which perhaps do not unfold at all ; but if the juices of the plants are plentiful and vigorous, the sap swells and drives all these buds into second-shoots of considerable length, which bear fruit as well as the shoots proper. Young vines, and those that have been topped by any accident, are hable to bear a great many of these second-shoots.

On the shoot we find the leaves, the fruit, in bunches opposite the leaves, and the tendrils by which it clings to other objects to support itself. Sometimes the shoot terminates in a small bunch, the berries of which are small, crowded, and generally round.

The leaves are mostly largest nearest the stock, and diminish in size towards the extremity of the shoot. The more the leaves are sharply lobed, the less they preserve the orbicular figure. The ribs are very large and distinct, and sometimes have the same tawny or reddish tinge as the leaf-stalk; The tendrils or cirrhi are a filamentous growth, an elongation of vessels of the shoot. They are rarely stationed at random, but generally opposite to the leaf ; they are branched or forked according to the strength of the species, the nature of the stock, or the vegetative powers of the shoot. They may be converted into fruits-talks by the following simple operation. When branched or forked, the smallest or weakest prong must be nipped off closely and neatly ; three or four days after, on the prong that is left, small buds will make their appearance, which increase and produce well-formed bunches, and mature into excellent grapes. This experiment was made for the first tiine in 1817, by M. Ristelhuber of Strasburg, and has been repeated by a great number of gardeners and vinedressers, and always with perfect success.

The berry is round or oval, varies in size and hue, being lighter or darker, of a blackish purple, foxy red or green, white or golden yellow. The colour is principally confined to the skin, which is thin, leathery or coriaceous 3 the pulp and the juice are very colourless, even in black grapes. The delicate bloom which coats the berry when ripe, is a symptom of maturity worthy of strict notice, according to Garidel and Estevan Boutelon. Each berry is attached to a fruit-stem or foot-stalk, which springs from the main peduncle or stem of the bunch ; the assemblage of main and minor stems and berries, constitutes the bunch.

The aroma of the Vine when in flower is highly prized in the East, and thought to possess incredible virtues. It has a very volatile and penetrating fragrance.

These general characteristics of the Vine, are such as are least known to vary or admit of change ; they are therefore taken as fixed points, on which to append our descriptions of the several sorts and varieties that are found the most profitable for cultivation.

1. EARLY BLACK MORILLON

Morillon Noir Hatlf.

Of this grape three are two kinds } the one is indigenous and is generally called the Magdalen grape ; the other is exotic, and the cultivation of it has only of late years attracted attention. It is known by the appellation of the Ischian or thrice bearing vine.

The Magdalen kind is, according to some, a native of Italy ; it hag a lower, shorter stock than most other kinds ; the leaves are small., and also the bunches, which are very compact ; the berry is not large, and is roundish ; the skin leathery, of a black purple, with a high bloom ; the p'olp greenish, slightly sugared, and almost insipid. It ripens by the end of July, or at farthest by the beginning of August, which is its only advantage. It figures on the tables of such as pride themselves on early fruit, and has no other merit than that of flattering the pride of a fantastical taste. It requires a loose, red soil, exposed to the south. It has erroneously been asserted to bear three crops in a favourable season, by the aid of judicious pruning ; but the thing is impossible. The kind to wliich Virgil alludes, (Geor. II.) and which Pliny, CHist. Nat.) calls trifera, thrice-bearing, iiisana, mad vine, is successfully cultivated by M. Borghers, of Lumigny, ( Seine and Marne ; ) and since 1812, he has distributed a great number of scions and cuttings. This kind is very vigorous, and yields, from the fourth year of its setting out, an abundance of excellent grapes, provided it be not pruned too close, and lopped too short. Owing to its great vigour and tendency to luxuriance, it is necessary to allow, after the second pruning, a considerable length to the wood or stock. When this vine has attained its fourth year, the first crop, which is the largest, ripens in the 48th parallel of latitude, in a southern exposure, from the 15th to the 20th of August ; the second crop ripens from the 2.5th September to the 5th October : and the third, which is merely a demonstration, from the 25lh October to the 10th November, if not caught by the early frosts. The two latter crops are the result of pruning ; the end of a shoot is cut off, two or three joints beyond the last bunch, just as the blossom has fallen, and the berry is moulded : that is, from the 15th to the 20lh of June. New branches or second-shoots immediately spring from the joints that are left, and unfold the clusters of the second crop ; as soon as the blossom of this latter is shed, the previous operation of pruning is repeated on these second shoots ; and soon after, but less rapidly than upon the first operation, the third crop appears, which it were better never to prune for in high latitudes, as it is very scanty and seldom succeeds to reach maturity.

This plant requires a sofl soil essentially light, and rich in vegetable mould. During drought it should be at times watered. A southern exposure and espalier training are rigorously indispensable to obtain the three crops in the northern departments of France.

It seems that it is a native of the isle of Chios, whence it was carried to Calabria and the island of Ischia, w^here it is called Ura di tre volte Vanno. The berry is very sweet, of a highly agreeable flavour, and with all the qualities requisite for furnishing a very fine wine. We would invite the attention of cultivators of the Vine to this species, recommending a trial of it in situations where it is difficult to ripen the grape. If the wine itself should not be even equal to beer, or cider, the grape itself would be one resource the more at harvest time, and for the tables of the poor.

Many writers have confounded this fine variety with the preceding, to which it has no points in common, save color and early ripening. To prove the error, I shall state the following facts.

Under the same tilling, training and pruning as the Ischian grape, the Magdalen grape for several successive years, gave always an early yield, but only the single crop the season ; while the Ischian gave three crops in 1822, and only two perfectly ripe in 1823 — 24, which were unfavourable seasons. In 1825 the vine exceeded all expectation ; slips trained in espalier gave an abundant crop, full ripe, the 18th August ; the 20th September, the splendid second growth was dead ripe, and the fruit fuller and larger than the first ; while at the same period, the berries of the third crop had filled and were beginning to turn, and the fourth crop was in blossom. The latter ripened on the 30th October ; it was very abundant, tolerably handsome, and slightly acidulous; and the berries were of the size of small peas.

This vine, cultivated in the open field, with its branches wound around strong posts, four feet in height, produced in 1825, on the 10th September, a first crop which was in every view magnificent ; and the 30th October a second crop perfectly ripe, and quite abundant ; but the bunches were small.

2. THE miller's grape.

The Miller's grape is the earliest to ripen of any ; it is easily known from all the other varieties, by the greyness of the leaves, which, especially in the spring, are covered with a thick, silky, whitish down. It will thrive in a very meagre soil, and is not tender to the frost ; but if nipped, it does not ren^w the blossom that season. The bunch- 63 are thick and short; the berries rather crowded, round, large, of a very pale yellow, and a sweet, agreeable flavour. The wine is passably good. This grape is very generally cultivated in all vine-yards, and has one advantage attending it, that it is not subject to the Blight, or barrenness of the blossom,

3. THE BLACK BURGUNDY.

Le Bourguignon noir.

The sort generally known by this name, is sometimes called franc Pineau, Farinau, JVoirier, Auvernas. The leaf is coated with a cotton-like down, is blunt at the summit and but slightly lobed. The woody-fibre, the leafstalks and even the stems of the bunches are of a deep, dark-red hue. The bunch is not over thick, is blunt-shaped and not very compact ; the berries oval, of a high coloured claret, and ripening uniformly. It is but a poor table fruit, but is highly prized for wine ; and indeed is the staple kind for that object in France. It requires a light, sandy or siliceous soil, and an eastern or western exposure. It stands the frost very well. The wine is rich, keeps well, and has an agreeable bouquet. The only draw back of this sort, is, that it is not a thrifty bearer ; the crops are small, and frequently, are only yielded every other year.

4. THE TINTO GRAPi:.

Le Teinturier.

The wood and stems of this kind, are redder even than the preceding variety. It is sometimes called Large Garnet, Noireau, (Oliver de Serres says Nigrier ) Large Black, or Spanish Black. Its leaves are very remarkable by their high tinge of red. The bunch is short .; the berries crowded ; and of a dark crimson colour, middling large, and very juicy. They are used to colour the must of other sorts ; the wine made from them alone, without the addition of other grapes, is flat, harsh and ill-flavoured; but can be rendered more lively by the admixture of the juice of th3 common white grape. Spring frosts are very severe upon it. It seems easily suited in soils and exposures. The grape is unfit for the table, being sourish, harsh and hard.

5, SMALL GAMET.

Le petit Gamtt

This variety of the Black Morillon thrives best in a strong loam, and any exposure will agree with it, though a northern one is the best.

The leaves are pointed, divided into three distinct lobes, of a pale green. Late spring frosts affect it ; but when nipped, it sends out a second crop of blossoms. The grape matures easily, and makes a passably good red wine. It bears well ; but the stock requires freruent renewing b}- layering, as it does not last many years.

(3. PEARL GRAPE.

Le Raisin perle.

The leaves are dentated, lobed, of a bright greeny the bunches loose, the fruit-stems very green; the berries of quite unequal sizes, but mostly not large ; oval, of a pale pearly green, and full of a rich, sugared juice. This variety is the staple of a great proportion of the vineyards. It likes a substantial loam, calcarious or marly, with a declivity to the ground. Humidity is most injurious to it during the blossoming; spring and fall frosts are both highly prejudiciable to it ; if once nipped, it does not bear again until the second year after. The grape when full ripe is slightly musky, and the wine it makes, whether white, pale, or red, is generous and excellent. The marmalade too is very rich and fragrant. This variety does not require frequent layering; and when under the pruning knife, the cutting should be made on intermediary shoots, and those not the strongest ones, which, according to their strength, are allowed one or two large doublings or bends, without any fear of their running out to a too great length.

T. BLI E GIRKIN.

Cornichon violet.

The leaves are very large and but slightly scolloped or lobed ; tlie bunches are small and scantily filled ; the grapes long, largest at the base and rather curved or hooked at the apex, like young cucumbers. The proportion of their length to their breadth is as 2^^ or 3^ to 1 . When ripe they are sometimes entirely blue ; but they oftener remain green at one end, which is generally the largest. This is the case in the neighbourhood of Paris where it is hard to find the Blue Girkin perfectly ripe. There is a white variety of the same fruit which matures more easily. The wine of this sort is hard, and requires to be sweetened by a mixture of milder grapes. It thrives in a strong soi5 , well open to the south.