On the Cultivatmi of the Vine, 



commences ^vhat I conceive to be the sole difficulty in 

 cultivating the vine — to wit— to determine at which 

 of the eyes it is to be cut off. What is here about to 

 be said, deserves the more attention, as it applies to 

 every succeeding cutting of the vine in every stage of 

 its existence ; goes directly to the ground and princi- 

 ple of its cultivation, and will not be found in any au- 

 thor who has written on this subject. 



Every joint of a grape vine has its own separate pith. 

 This most important circumstance commences at the 

 lowest leaf that has a clasper* opposite to the leaf. A 

 solid woody substance passing from the leaf to the 

 clasper, through the vine, and connecting them toge- 

 ther, cuts off entirely the communication between the 

 pith and the joint below, with that of the joint next 

 above ; and so on, upward, at every joint through the 

 whole length of the vine. And it is a circumstance 

 not less important to be known, and kept in mind, that 

 all the eyes below this first clasper are formed in the 

 bosom of smaller and more feeble leaves ; and that the 

 base of these eyes does not extend across the vine, so 

 as entirely to cut off the pith of the joint below, from 

 that of the joint next above it : these eyes are there- 

 fore imperfect, and whenever you trim the vine, ought 

 to be rubbed off. 



* The word clasper is alone used to avoid prolixity ; but this cir- 

 cumstance, in after stages of the growth of the vine, takes place, 

 also, where the first bunch of grapes stands opposite to a leaf j which 

 pever fails to stand below all the claspers, which are indeed the bar- 

 ren fruit stems, and whose chief office is to support the vine and 

 the clusters below them. 



