FRUIT-GARDENING. 113 



county, Alabama, was pronounced by the judges, " a pleasant 

 wine, sweet, like Malmsey, and if no sugar has been added to 

 the juice, as is represented, it is remarkable in its character. 1 ' 



It is recorded in the Southern Cultivator, " that some of the 

 most celebrated wine connoisseurs of Columbus describe the 

 wine made from the Uchee Grape as having the body of Port, 

 with a little of the Muscat flavor, and equal to the best imported." 



TRAINING AND PRUNING. 



There are various methods adopted in training and prun- 

 ing the vine ; and it appears impossible to lay down rules 

 to suit every cultivator. The vine having, like other trees, 

 a tendency to produce its most vigorous shoots at the ex- 

 tremities of the branches, and particularly so at those which 

 are situated highest, it generally happens, when it is trained 

 high, that the greater portion of the fruit is borne near the top ; 

 and it has been observed that the fruit produced on the vigor- 

 ous shoots, which naturally grow at the extremities of the long 

 branches, is generally more abundant, and of finer quality than 

 that produced on the short lateral ones, from which circum- 

 stance some fruit-growers contend that high training is best 

 calculated for private gardens. 



In some parts of Italy, vines are cultivated together with 

 Mulberry-trees, and are allowed to mingle and hang in festoons. 

 Thus silk and wine are produced on the same spot; and it is 

 considered that when vines are alloVed to grow over trees, on 

 the side of a house, or on bowers, or extended on tall poles, 

 without much trimming, they will produce more fruit, and are 

 not so liable to mildew. 



Dr. G. W. Chapman, of New York, having paid some atten- 

 tion to the cultivation of native grapes, observes that the vme, 

 in its natural state, seldom or never throws out bearing-shoots 

 until it reaches the top of the tree on which it ascends, when 

 the branches take a horizontal or descending position. From 

 this fact he considers horizontal training preferable to that in 



