?6 FRUIT-BEARING POWERS 



CHAPTER III. 



ON THE CAPABILITY AND EXTENT OF THE FRUIT-BEARING 

 POWERS OF THE VINE. 



There is not a single point of culture in the whole 

 routine of the management of a vine, the knowledge 

 of which is of so much importance, as that which en- 

 ables the cultivator to ascertain with precision, the 

 greatest quantity of fruit he can annually extract from 

 it, without checking its growth, or injuring its vital 

 powers. The operation of pruning, if it be not guided 

 by this, is an operation performed perfectly at ran- 

 dom, and every inch of bearing-wood either cut out, 

 or retained under such circumstances, is done in utter 

 ignorance of the consequences, whether they will 

 ultimately prove injurious or beneficial to the health 

 and fertility of the plant. And yet, necessary as is 

 this knowledge, and without the guidance of which, 

 in pruning, neither good flavored grapes, nor good 

 crops, can with certainty be annually obtained, all 

 the rules hitherto laid down for the pruning of vines, 

 have been promulgated, unaccompanied with the 

 slightest instruction to lead the pruner to a knowl- 

 edge of this most valuable point of culture. 



Such, however, is the importance of proportioning 

 tlie quantity of fruit to be matured, to the capability 

 of the plant, that in Miller's Gardener's Dictionary it 

 is stated, in reference to the cultivation of the vine in 

 foreign countries, " that when gentlemen abroad let 

 out vineyards to vignerons, there is always a clause 

 inserted in their leases, to direct how many shoots 

 shall be left upon each vine, and the number of eyes 

 to which the branches must be shortened ; because, 

 were not the vignerons thus tied down, they would 



