46 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON TRAINING. 



In order to make the subject easily intelligible it is necessary to have some know- 

 ledg-c of the purposes to be accomplished b}^ it at the beginning. All good systems 

 or methods have the same objects in view, and endeavor to attain them through the 

 application of the same principles. But there is a great variety of methods of appli- 

 cation to accomplish the same general plan, and these are varied by different circum- 

 stances and conditions. 



The vine is a savage, and however long time it may have been subjected to civil- 

 ization, like humanity, it never learns to become all that is desirable without educa- 

 tion and training under favorable conditions, which it is the object of the garden to 

 furnish for all of its inhabitants. 



The sportiveness of the savage, that tends to little but luxurious enjoyment and 

 the propagation of its kind, in the warm latitudes for which it is specially adapted, must 

 not only be led in the daily walks of duty and sobriety, but must be induced to per- 

 form these duties in a somewhat, at least, imcongenial climate. Its nature must be 

 humored and led, but can not be crossed or very greatly constrained ; and we have 

 acquired such knowledge of its character that we know the conditions under which 

 some of its varieties will thrive and yield their delights perpetually. 



At the time of planting, as we have already seen, the system of education and 

 training by which it is brought to mature productiveness is already contemplated and 

 decided upon. 



A space of certain dimensions in breadth and hight is to be occupied by a mother- 

 stock of given size and proportions, to be furnished with a precisely defined number 

 of canes, each one of which is to be garnished with a certain definite number of 

 buds, leaves, and bunches of fruit, all of them disposed in predetermined order. To 

 bring the vine through its infancy and youth to full maturity is very easy, but to 

 maintain it in full vigorous manhood of productiveness perpetual Ij^, requires more at- 

 tentive consideration. " The child is father of the man," and if every step upward 

 is well taken, the conditions of its manhood are favorable to perpetual health and 

 existence. 



The ordinary difficulties that occur in training are from the disposition of the vine 

 continually to extend itself, and particularly upward, which must be restrained within 

 the prescribed limits. The upward tendency is easily controlled by taking all of the 

 bearing canes of the same vine from the same level ; and when a great elevation is 

 to be covered, like a high trellis or wall, or the side of a building, the different stages 

 of elevation are to be covered with different vines, as we have seen already in the 

 Thomery plan, pages 22 and 24, and also 25. Those will be more fully understood 

 after reading the chapter on training wliich follows, in which the principles of train- 

 ing will be fully developed. The same may be said of the chapter on pages 39 and 

 40. A number of plans will be found for taking fruit at different points of elevation 

 on the same vine, as in Plates 2, 3, 4, 5, 35, 43, 50, etc. ; but these are all imperfect 

 and wanting in permanence, but may still be advisable under some circumstances. 



TRAINING THE VINE. 



On the subject of planting I have given such full and particular directions, that all 

 who have read the remarks with attention can not fail to have acquired correct gene- 

 ral ideas of the true theory and practice of training. 



The subject has been so fully illustrated with engravings, which exhibit the meth- 

 ods of training also, for which each plan of planting is peculiarly adapted, that the 

 student must, at the same time, have acquired a pretty good idea of training, so that 

 the matter will be easily understood if treated in the plain and simple manner that 

 belongs to operations the most simple and naturally concurrent with common-sense of 

 any that fall under the cognizance of horticulture. 



All that is required of the student is to begin at the beginning and look clearly at 

 the manner of performing each operation, and the wherefoi-e of it, as it will be stated, 

 In one hour the difficulties which have been attributed to the subject will all be dissi- 

 pated forever. 



