272 PRUNING. 



Acres in Cultivation. In the absence of any reliable 

 statistics no true account of the number of acres in culti- 

 vation can now be written, but estimating from the re- 

 ports of Grape Growers', Horticultural, and Agricultural 

 Societies, we may safely assume that we have something 

 over one million of acres, of which the territory west of 

 the Rocky Mountains may claim 100,000, and the States 

 east the remainder. 



Garden Culture. The management of our native grapes 

 is exceedingly simple. The vine appears to accommodate 

 itself to a great variety of modes of treatment and give an 

 abundance of fruit. But a well-pruned and trained vine, 

 in a well-prepared soil, will assuredly compensate for all 

 additional labor and care in its culture. 



Immense crops are raised throughout the country in the 

 entire absence of any systematic mode of training or prun- 

 ing. A single vine in a neighbor's garden, carried to the 

 flat roof of an out-building, and allowed to ramble there at 

 pleasure, without any care but a very imperfect pruning 

 every spring, produces annually many bushels of fruit ; 

 but the quality is, of course, greatly inferior to that pro- 

 duced on well-pruned, trained, and dressed vines. A grape- 

 vine neatly trained on a trellis, with its luxuriant, ample 

 foliage and rich, pendulous clusters of fruit, is really one 

 of the most interesting objects in a fruit garden, and at 

 the same time one of the most profitable ; for the shade 

 and ornament alone that it produces, are a sufficient 

 recompense for its culture. 



Soils. In planting a grape-vine the first poin.t is to pre- 

 pare a border for the roots. 



This must, in the first place, be perfectly dry. If the 

 soil or situation be wet or damp, it must be drained thor- 

 oughly, so that no stagnant moisture can exist in it. In 

 the next place, it must be deep ; three feet is a good depth, 

 and it must not be less than two, where abundant and fine 

 crops are expected. The mode of preparation is, to dig 



