12 The Grape. [July, 



Besides, it must be borne in mind that the same wood produces 

 fruit for one season only. Another capital error arising from too 

 great an extension of the vine is its smallness, and consequent 

 feebleness; especially is this the case, if its fruit is suffered to 

 mature when the vine is young, and before it has gained sufficient 

 vigor to produce perfect fruit. In this case there is too great a 

 proportion of foliage; the small and slender vines develop very 

 generally a vast amount, and the vines, too, being greatly multi- 

 plied, an enormous extent for evaporation is created by which the 

 root can by no means supply the waste; and the consequence is, 

 that the energy of the vine is greatly crippled. To obviate, then, 

 these difficulties, the vine has to be pruned to a far greater extent 

 than we are accustomed to prune other plants. Pruning at the 

 proper time and to a proper extent is necessary to impart vigor 

 and strength to what remains, and which is destined to the office 

 of bearing fruit. The energy and power must not be wasted by 

 a wide diffusion through numerous and extended channels and 

 wide, evaporating surface; but all must be concentrated upon a 

 comparatively small area, if excellent and abundant fruit is wished 

 for. There is a principle which governs, or ought to govern us 

 in the use of the knife, viz., to preserve a due balance between 

 the wood-producing power and the fruit-producing power; inas- 

 much as these two powers are not the same. In their native 

 countries respectively these two powers are balanced, or may be. 

 But in removing the plant from a warmer to a colder latitude, the 

 wood-producing power predominates; and hence we see that the 

 plant may live far beyond its true latitude and appear flourishing, 

 but yields no fruit. Hence, the necessity for trimming foreign 

 grapes, while the native grape, in its own latitude, with its 

 powers duly balanced, will always require less reduction in the 

 amount of wood. The same principle may be applied to the culti- 

 vation of other fruits, where foliage and wood is introduced at the 

 expense of fiuit; let it be restrained by the knife, or other means, 

 as the case requires. 



Another thing which calls for remark, and which points to a 

 detrimental practice, is the suffering of the accumulation of old 

 bark upon the main stem. The intention of nature is that the 

 vine, like the button wood, should cast or exfoliate the whole of 

 the bark of the preceding year; but this it may not be able to 

 effect; and hence it should be removed, broken up and covered 

 with earth near the base of the main stem, where it will decay 

 and furnish thereby nourishment to plant. In the wilds of nature 

 this is one of the methods by which the plant sustains itself. A 

 great amount of bark is produced annually; and it contains a 

 large percentage of lime and element necessary to the healtli and 

 well being of the plant. What nature performs or attempts to 



