SECRETARY'S REPORT. 69 



is cheap, the grape interest is the ruling interest, the most pro- 

 fitable interest, and they think they can afford to do it, and they 

 do do it; but our people, I think, would not. Now, in my 

 judgment, protection is never needed where a hardy grape is 

 used, and where it is properly cultivated, in which case its wood 

 will be ripe and solid and capable of enduring the winter better 

 than in the other case. 



And what is proper cultivation ? Simply that the vine shall 

 be kept in perfect healtli, and not pushed so fast with stimulat- 

 ing manures that the tissues of the wood will be loose, spongy, 

 and in short, unripe. I have seen the shoots of an oak tree, 

 which stopped growing in the spring, from drought, but started 

 again in August, with the late rains, and grew long, killed by 

 the severe winter frosts, showing that even the hardiest of plants 

 must have its wood well ripened to endure the winter. Some 

 grapes which are believed to be tender are positively hardy when 

 grown in this way ; but almost everybody grows the grape with 

 so much stimulating manure that the wood is not thoroughly 

 ripe and hard, and so those which are by nature a little tender, 

 die utterly, and even those which are hardy, with proper cul- 

 ture, lose some of their wood. You can see, I think, that with 

 this method of cultivation which I- have suggested, the grape 

 would not be likely to make too much wood. If it made no 

 more than half a yard, or twelve inches of wood — thoroughly 

 well ripened wood — with well developed buds, you might be 

 content. But you would find, in growing the grape, or any- 

 thing, indeed, that the rule for pruning would lie in this : that 

 if you have great power at the root, you must have a corres- 

 ponding extension of top. There must be a proper -balance 

 between the root and the top. If there be too much top, the 

 growth will be meagre, and the crop meagre. The remedy 

 would be, of course, to cut back severely. But if, on the other 

 hand, your grape was growing with such luxuriance as to get 

 out of hand and crowd the trellis where you did not want it, 

 and you kept cutting it. back severely, the difficulty would only 

 be continued from year to year, and you would have wood, not 

 fruit. So it happens that some of the most prolific vines we 

 have, do not, under some circumstances, bear ; but on inquiring, 

 you will usually find that they have grown with such vigor, 



t 



