34 FRUIT-BEARING POWERS 



vital powers. From this source much valuable infor- 

 mation was obtained, and the fact was also established, 

 that young vines will always show fruit before they 

 can ripen it, without injuring their future growth and 

 fertility. 



From the whole of these experiments, therefore, a 

 scale was then constructed in accordance with their 

 results, of the weight of fruit which any vine that 

 has not been previously overcropped, will bring to the 

 highest perfection which the climate will permit, with- 

 out impairing its vital powers, which was the point of 

 knowledge sought to be obtained. 



Agreeably to this scale, which is inserted below, I 

 pruned, in the winter of 1830, nearly forty vines of 

 different sorts, and of various ages, leaving in each 

 no greater number of buds than appeared on an aver- 

 age calculation to be sufficient to produce as much 

 fruit as the vine was allowed to mature. In the follow- 

 ing summer, as soon as the berries were set, the num- 

 ber of bunches required to produce the given weight 

 of fruit was selected to remain, and the excess imme- 

 diately cut off. I have strictly adhered to this plan 

 ever since, and it has enabled me to produce liner 

 grapes than I have ever seen or heard of being grown 

 on open walls in this country. And so prolific does 

 every vine become, from the hard pruning which an 

 adherence to this scale compels, that I have frequent- 

 ly to cut off, at the proper period in the summer, as 

 much as one-half, and sometimes even three-fourths, 

 of the fruit which many of the vines show, in order to 

 reduce it to its proper quantity. 



Vines thus pruned, with the bearing-wood annually 

 adjusted to their respective powers of maturation, be- 

 ing kept within a small compass on the surface of the 

 wall, are easily managed throughout the summer. 

 They never fail to produce an abundant supply of the 



