32 FRUIT-BEARING POWERS 



selected during the above-mentioned period from 

 1826 to 1830, and as much fruit assigned to each of 

 them to ripen, as was then thought equal to their 

 powers of maturation. The weight so assigned has 

 since proved to have been pretty near the correct pro- 

 portion. 



The results of all these experiments were carefully 

 registered from year to year, and at the close of 1830, 

 the whole being accurately examined, it appeared 

 clearly that the capability of the vines to mature fruit 

 was in direct proportion to the circumference of their 

 respective stems. 



Simultaneously, also, with these experiments, sev- 

 eral young vines were annually set apart for the pur- 

 pose of discovering the effects of early bearing on 

 their subsequent growth, and of ascertaining the size 

 which the stem of a young vine must attain, before 

 it is capable of maturing any fruit without injury to 

 its vital powers. From this source much valuable 

 information was obtained, and the fact was also es- 

 tablished, that young vines will always show fruit, 

 before they can ripen it without injuring their future 

 growth and fertility. 



From the whole of tliese experiments, therefore, a 

 scale was then constructed in accordance with their 

 results, of the weight of fruit which airy vine that 

 has not been previously overcropped, will bring to the 

 highest perfection which the climate will permit, 

 without 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 

 average calculation to be sufficient to produce as 

 much fruit as the vine was allowed to mature. In 

 the following summer, as soon as the berries were 

 set, the number of bunches required to produce the 

 given weight of fruit was selected to remain, and the 

 excess immediately cut off. I have strictly adhered 



