STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 143 



The practice also of heading back old fruit trees, and thus renew- 

 ing for a time their energy, is resorted to only because the energy 

 of the tree is diminished. Both these practices are based on the 

 undoubted fact that the vital energy of the roots often outlives 

 that of the top. Hence we often see, in this incongenial climate, 

 declining plum, pear, quince, gooseberry and currant trees and 

 bushes, throwing up thrifty shoots from the root, which gradually, 

 even at times without the cultivator's interference, become the 

 principal tree. Such superior vitality of the root of a tree, in an 

 infelicitous climate, is doubtless referable to the superior security 

 of its position in the soil, free usually from the attack of insects, 

 from accidents, but especially from climatic changes and inten- 

 sities. 



The native grape is often diceceous and barren. When truly her- 

 maphrodite, aud permitted to embower trees and hedges at will, 

 it often bears fully and annually without being trimmed. Many 

 of these grapes, judging from the diameter of the main vine and 

 the extent of its expansion, acquire a very great age; a proof 

 that, in positions spontaneously chosen, nature provides all need- 

 ful nutriment. I had a native vine on my hired premises in 184 1 ; 

 it grew on tlie margin of the garden in a light, deep, sandy soil, 

 which was there never cultivated. The general locality was at 

 the foot of a hill. This vine was expanded over a hedge of hardy 

 cherry and wild plum trees. I know not that it was ever 

 trimmed. It bore a heavy crop, that ripened well, though few of 

 its clusters ever saw the direct rays of the sun. It was encum- 

 bered with more or less decaying wood which fell to the ground 

 during the summer, thus shewing the mode in which nature 

 operates. This obviously is thus illustrated. All those portions 

 of the vine, which become too thick for tlie proper enjoyment of 

 light and air, exhibit a portion of the wood, lying outermost, 

 taking the lead in the early season. Thus tlie inner and shaded 

 vegetation dies and falls, just as it does in the centre of a large 

 apj)le or forest tree. In this way, in all tliese cases alike, the 

 proi)er })alance between the top and the root is preserved. Tliis 

 very grape, wlien transfered twelve miles, by cuttings, and cul- 

 tivated in this city, from 1843 to nearly tlie present time, lias 

 been a shy bearer, though planted in a dry light soil much as 

 that in which the parent stood, though not like it a natural soil. 



