HARDY GRAPES. 51 



Dr. Fisher declared that nothing else in the grape line is so 

 mean as an uai'ipe Concord. No other grape is better than a well- 

 fed, ripe Concord. That is the point about which, and to which 

 all he had said was directed. There is a great difference in grapes 

 of the same variety, as they are grown in or near Fitchburg, or 

 are grown in portions of the state of New York. He considers 

 the latter too sweet for most tastes. After eating freely of them, 

 as of confectionery, one needs some cheese to counteract their 

 cloying effect. Respecting the flavor of any fruit, he said that if 

 it is produced upon a vigorous plant the flavor can be greatly 

 improved l)y thinning out the fruit that sets ; then the tree, shrub, 

 vine, or plant, will have to mature only the amount it can carry to 

 perfection. All extra fruit ensures just so much deterioration of 

 quality or flavor. His practice is to thin out each cluster when 

 the berries are about the size of peas. As a rule, from his long 

 experience, he can judge about right as to the extent of the 

 thinning ; but sometimes circumstances connected with the 

 weather, insects, fungi, or possibly the fertilizers, may be so 

 peculiar as to make it very difficult to judge aright in this matter 

 of thinning, but with him it is never overdone. 



Referring again to the theory of special roots feeding corres- 

 ponding single branches, and even twigs and leaves. Dr. Fisher 

 said that a full-grown tree, in the absence of any injury or muti- 

 lation*, will have a root for every limb, a rootlet for every twig, and 

 a multitude of feeders for every part and parcel of the foliage. 

 The annual feeding roots all die each year after performing their 

 functions, as do the leaves ; while the larger roots remain perma- 

 nently, like the limbs and branches above the soil. In the case of 

 the grape vine, a large proportion of which is pruned away each 

 autumn, the roots corresponding to these arms, or branches, also 

 mostly die and decay. If it were otherwise the ground would be 

 filled in a few years, with roots many times greater in bulk than 

 the unpruned portion of the vines remaining, which is never the 

 case. Hence, in girdling, the large root corresponding to the gir- 

 dled arm does not ripen but dies, and is of no value to the vine 

 afterward. If a large limb of a tree is severed, the root supply- 

 ing it ceases its functions and decays. Conversely, the euttiug-off 

 of a main root deprives the limb, which it specially supplies, of 

 means of growth, and it dies, or becomes much enfeebled thereby. 

 If it does not fully do this, it is only because of a means of com- 



