Seed

To raise new varieties seed from the largest, earliest, and best ripened berries must be separated from their pulp, and kept until the February following; then to be sown in "pots filled with light fresh mould, and plunged in a moderately warm hot-bed. They will come up in four or six weeks; and when the plants are about six inches high, they should be transplanted singly into forty-eights, and afterwards into pots of larger size.

"Water gently as circumstances require; allow abundance of light and air, and carefully avoid injuring any of the leaves. Cut down the plants everv autumn to good buds, and suffer only one of these to extend itself in the following spring. Shift into larger pots, as occasion requires, till they have produced fruit. This, under good management, will take place in the fourth or fifth year, when the approved sorts should be selected, and the rest destroyed, or used as stocks on which to graft or inarch good sorts." - Enc. of Gard.

If a hybrid grape be required, the stamens of the female parent must be cut away with very sharp-pointed scissors before their anthers have burst, and the pollen be applied to the stigma from the male desired to be the other parent. No very superior varieties have yet rewarded those who have attempted thus to improve the grape.

Budding

A good authority thus states his mode: -

"About the first week in March I perform the operation: or, as soon as I perceive the sap begin to rise, I cut from a branch, about three inches in length, an eye having attached as much wood as I could possibly get with it; at each end of the eye, I cut off about a quarter of an inch of the upper bark, making the ends quite thin; I next measure off the exact length of the bud, on the base of the vine intended to be budded, and make a nick slanting upward at the upper part, and another slanting downward at the bottom. I then take the piece neatly out, so that the bud may fit nicely in; and by making the nick as stated above, each end of the bud is covered by the bark of the shoot. I bind the buds firmly round with matting, and clay it, taking care, however, that the clay does not cover the eye of the bud: I then tie it round with moss, and keep it constantly damp; and as the sap rises in the vine, the bud begins to swell.

"When the vine commences to push out young shoots, take the top ones off, in order to throw a little more sap into the bud, and as you perceive it getting stronger, take off more young shoots, and so continue until you have taken off all the young shoots. Budding can only be performed where the long-rod system is practised, as in that case you have the power of confining the sap to the bud, which will grow vigorously. As soon as you perceive this, cut the vine down to the bud. Budding has the advantage over grafting, by not leaving an unsightly appearance where the bud was inserted. I always allow the matting to remain on until about the month of September".