8 BRIGHT ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



to prune severely an old vine, with a long cane, but 

 sucli is not our system. We grow an entire vine one 

 season, and fruit it the next ; we do not cut back se- 

 verely an old vine already grown. The vine under this 

 system is allowed to expend its whole strength, wild 

 rambling nature and all, during one season, in the pro- 

 duction of a new and perfect cane ^ the next season it is 

 permitted to produce a full crop of fruit, as full and as 

 heavy as its wood and roots are able to perfect. If this 

 is not work enough for the roots, as much work, in fact, 

 as any vine is called upon to perform, then we have 

 made a great mistake in our estimate of the matter. 



The opponents of dwarf culture declare that this sys- 

 tem may answer for foreign grapes in pots, but will not 

 answer for the Isabella, and other hardy native grapes j 

 this opinion being based upon the idea that the native 

 grapes, with their wild character, are more free in 

 growth than the foreign vines. But this latter opinion 

 is positively incorrect. It is not true that the native 

 grapes arc more vigorous or free in growth than the 

 foreign kinds, as every grape-grower, who has ever cul- 

 tivated the foreign kinds under glass, must admit. The 

 whole theory upon which the dwarf culture of native 

 grapes is opposed, is founded in error. The foreign 

 vines are in fact vastly more free in growth, more wild, 

 if you please, than the Isabella, or any other native ; 

 yet the foreign vines endure the dwarfing process in pot 

 culture, not only without injury, but with the highest 

 deo-ree of success. The same is true of the Isabella and 



