88 MY GARDEN WHAT FRUITS WERE CULTIVATED. 



house it is no trifling matter how the vines are 

 trimmed. (Reflection : I suppose it is on this 

 principle that surgeons and physicians do not 

 like to practise in their own families.) 



The great majority of us leave one or moie 

 buds too many on every branch, meaning to do 

 some rigorous spring and summer pruning. 

 Where the buds start too thickly we will rub 

 some off, not promiscuously, by late tying, but 

 with great judgment. And when the forming 

 clusters are little furzy blossoms of exquisite 

 perfume, we can go through them on June even- 

 ings, and cut out all save the most promising 

 canes. Yes, we can, but do we always in time? 

 Though such a task is the very poetry of gar- 

 dening, the Eden phase in which we have only 

 o check Nature's too exuberant efforts in our 

 behalf, still the tangled and matted mass of 

 vines and smothered fruit that I have seen in 

 other gardens as well as my cwn indicate the 



