178 ANNi/AL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



expansion of its vine and roots by the modern system of pruning. 

 I say — do all this, and what will be the consequence ? Its w^ood 

 and leaf will be enlarged and sappy, and the result of its annual 

 growth of branches will be spongy and vascular, in short, imma- 

 ture, and no longer able to bear the sudden changes and hot 

 intensity of summer, or the severe cold of winter. Should it be 

 retorted that my argument will be equally applicable to all high 

 culture of other fruits also, I answer, — true, it has a slight bear- 

 ing in that direction, and certainly indicates the importance of 

 moderation in the culture of fruits in such a climate as this. Eut 

 the grape is unlike our other and hardy fruits. They do not fear 

 ordinary vernal and autumnal frosts, the least touch of which 

 destroys the foliage of the grape. They none of them present 

 the spongy wood of the grape. 



c. The character of all vegetable secretions depends on the struc- 

 ture of the vascular system, especially that of the leaf, since it is in 

 that system that its elaborations are performed. Now there is some 

 ground for the opinion that very delicate fruits, of any one 

 species, have, at least very often, a more delicate structure of 

 elaborating machinery than other varieties of fruit of the same 

 species, but of less delicate qualities. This is not of course 

 illustrated by the Seckel pear, nor by the Swaar apple. But it is 

 seen in the general comparison of tropical with hardy fruits, and 

 of our more delicate plums, cherries, and pears, with those that 

 are less so. So far as there is truth in this position, we are not 

 to expect usually to obtain fruits of rare delicacy but at the 

 expense of such a course of culture as shall make the plant 

 itself delicate in constitution, and require a continued course of 

 culture conformed to such constitutional delicacy, — a thing not 

 fully and cheaply admissible in such a climate as this, as it 

 already appears in the cultivation of the foreign grape and the 

 peach. 



d. Once more : Delicacy of vegetable secretions depends not 

 only on some inscrutable mechanical structure of elaborating 

 machinery in the leaf, limb and perhaps fruit itself, but it depends 

 still more on climate. This is evident in the comparison of tro- 

 pical with hardy fruits, and that of melons, plums, peaches, &c., 

 in a hot, dry season, and one cool and w^et. We may suppose 

 then that fruits of exquisite delicacy require a rare combination 



