INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 15 



Heat, liglit, and moisture are the main requisites ; yet 

 these elements are generally too sparingly administered, 

 although the grape-vine requires them all in abundance 

 while growing freely. 



It would be well if all cultivators were to study more 

 closely the laws by which the vegetable world is gov- 

 erned ; were it so there would be fewer failures. We are 

 attached too much to set notions, and follow the blind 

 practice of prejudice oftener than we ought ; and if we 

 add to this the great number of pretenders who swarm 

 over the country, there is no occasion to wonder at the 

 many failures. Let it not be thought that I wish to de- 

 preciate the character of the skilful horticulturist, for we 

 have many men who are an honor to the calling, — well 

 qualified to give advice, and under whose care the grape 

 vine is as well managed as in any part of Europe; but 

 while wishing to do all in our power to uphold the pro- 

 fession, we should raise our voice against those egotistical 

 empirics who often deceive the unwary, waste the pro- 

 perty of those who employ them, and bring ruin to many 

 a horticultural establishment. In no department is this 

 more often seen than in the grapery, where the weak 

 growth, the ill-fed papery leaves, and spare fruit tell a 

 woful tale of mismanagement. Yet no fruit-bearing plant, 

 yields more readily to the wishes of the cultivator, or will 

 bear more ill treatment than the grape, and if o^her fruits 

 had to be managed as artificially as this requires to be 

 under glass, there would be in them more failures, than it 

 is subject to under inexperienced hands. 



Although there is much skill required in the cultivation 

 of this fruit in all its bearings, there are none of those 

 superannuated nostrums, or mysterious dogmas required, 

 that these quacks prate about, and the necessary know- 

 ledge is readily acquired. The main secrets are, to under- 



