126 THE GRAPE CULTUKIST. 



admit that all the experience of the vine yardists of Europe 

 is of no practical value to us. 



The same laws that govern the growth of the foreign 

 vine control that of ours, and I have no reason to doubt 

 that some of the best systems of training that have been so 

 long successfully employed in Europe would, with slight 

 modification, be almost as successful here. I know that it 

 has been repeatedly asserted that the American species 

 and varieties of the grape are much stronger and of coarser 

 growth than the foreign ones, consequently they can not 

 be so readily brought under control, or be kept within 

 similar limits, without destroying their usefulness. But 

 my own experience and observation lead me to think that 

 so far as regards growth this is an error, and that naturally 

 the foreign are on the whole as vigorous growers as are 

 our native varieties. When grown under glass they ap- 

 pear to be more so, and whenever they are grown in a 

 favorable situation in the open air, they are not only strong, 

 but often rampant growers. We can not arrive at a cor- 

 rect estimate of what their natural growth would be under 

 favorable circumstances by what we see in the old vine- 

 yards of Europe, where the soil has been under cultivation 

 for centuries, or by observing them in our own country, 

 where they seldom pass the first season without being 

 attacked by disease. 



It is not necessary for us to follow strictly any of the 

 European systems of culture or training, but by gathering 

 from foreign experience that which is of value to us, and 

 sifting out principles from prejudices, we may arrive at 

 facts which are very important. 



It is not necessary, nor would it be judicious for us to 

 undertake to dwirf the native vine to that extreme to 

 which it is carried in some parts of Europe, but we should 

 stop midway between it and the wild vines of our forests. 

 I know there are some who are continually pointing to the 

 wild vine as an example of what the cultivated vine should 



