Notwithstanding this, and that the test was not carried out in the



Hosted by



Google



Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 199

most efficient way, two directors of the Royal Horticultural Society,
the Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. Hogg, are reported to have rather
emphatically condemned the system. Having, from a very early
age, had considerable experience of the keeping of late grapes,
I had no more doubt from the moment that I saw this mode of
preserving them well. put in practice, that it would prove an
aid to the British gardener, and be adopted extensively in this
country, than I had that the hawthorn will bloom in spring. I
therefore took no serious notice of several small attacks upon
it by persons who had had no means of judging of it, and little or
no influence to prevent gardeners from reaping advantage by its use j
but when directors of the Royal Horticultural Society condemn a
method that is certain to prove a real improvement and useful aid
to the grape-grower, then it behoves me to speak. Prejudice or a
hasty judgment is excusable in many cases, but that the leaders of
this learned body should condemn a system without having given
it a fair trial, or causing it to be fairly tried in their gardens, seems
somewhat contrary to what is called the *' spirit of the age." The
Rev. M. J. Berkeley is reported to have said that the grapes would
^' lose their sugar 5" and if I am not misinformed this opinion first
came from Dr. Hogg j but it is probably not an opinion arrived at
from experiment in this country, being well known to the French,
who are also aware that pears rot after a certain period in the fruit-
room. Yet I presume these gentlemen would not argue against
storing apples and pears in consequence of the virtues these fruit
lose before they become spongy or decayed. The fact is that the
French in carrying out their experiments have kept some of their
grapes as long as they could for curiosity sake, if nothing else, and
have frequently shown them in a nice plump condition long after they
ripen their early grapes — just for the honour of the thing. 