THE ROOTS OF GRAPE VINES. 169 



The latter, which is the power of producing and per- 

 fecting its fruit, cannot exist without the former, but 

 the former, which is the power of producing shoots and 

 leaves, can and does exist without the latter. 



In the native country of the vine, these two powers 

 are by nature equally balanced, but this balance is de- 

 stroyed in progressing towards the equator on the one 

 hand, or towards the north pole on the other. Within 

 the tropics the light and heat are too intense for the 

 vegetative power, which cannot therefore exist in suf- 

 ficient strength to support the maturative power ; con- 

 sequently, grapes cannot be grown there without arti- 

 ficial means being used to reduce and circumscribe the 

 too powerful effects of the sun. On the other hand, 

 in receding northward from the vinous country, a pre- 

 cisely opposite effect takes place. Every degree of 

 latitude in that direction brings with it an increase of 

 the vegetative power and a decrease of the maturative 

 power. And so great is the disparity betwixt these 

 two powers as they exist in England, that in the 

 southern parts the latter power bears about the same 

 proportion to the former as one does to ten, while, in 

 the northern parts, the maturative power becomes 

 wholly extinct, although the branches of the vine pos- 

 sess there a vigorous growth. 



If, therefore, the shoots and leaves of a vine planted 

 in this country become so exceedingly strong, as to 

 exist in proportion to its fruit-bearing power in the 

 ratio of ten to one, for what useful purpose, it may be 

 asked, can manure, or any thing in the nature of a 

 stimulant to promote growth, be added to the soil in 

 which vines are planted 1 Not certainly to increase 

 their prolificacy, for it will have a tendency to produce 

 a contrary effect. It is not only in England that vines 

 cannot be made prolific by adding stimulants to the 

 soil in which they grow, but it is the same throughout 



