MY GARDEN WHAT FRUITS WERE CULTIVATED. 85 



The grape-vine is a patient friend, and, there- 

 fore, we neglect it. We can train it when con- 

 venient after October, so we delay and put it off 

 till spring, and then every cut becomes a bleed- 

 ing wound. It is nearly hardy, and many 

 varieties will usually endure exposure, so we 

 delay covering till the edge of winter, or risk 

 them above ground altogether. I did this in 

 '71, and scarcely had five pounds of fruit in 

 consequence the next season, when I ought to 

 have had five hundred or a thousand. Then in 

 the spring we can tie them up any time ; and in 

 the press of other things and the general spirit of 

 procrastination in which we like to put off" every- 

 thing, even preparing for Paradise till it is almost 

 too late, we leave them till the buds are no longer 

 little hard knobs, but incipient branches that 

 will drop off" even if you touch them as one 

 would a baby's cheek. I would like to see the 

 man of superhuman patience who could finish, 



