THE QUALITY OF PLANTS AS AFFECTED BY AGE, ETC. 



lb 



r.icce»3. Only one more will now be named, which is the importance 

 of the fall ripening of the wood and roots, which only takes place 

 where the leaves, after having fully performed their office, take the 

 hues of autumn, and fall off entire in tlicir ripeness, without shriv- 

 eling and rolling up from mildew, blight, or frost. One of the very 

 Smportant conditions which have always given surpassing excellence 

 to my vines, as shown by their performance in every part of the coun- 

 try, has been owing to the exemption of the locality in which they are 

 frrown from k»*8 and early frosts, which has permitted the perfect rip- 

 •ning just named, in consequence of which the vines have acquired 

 a degree of hardiness elsewhere unknown. They have received the 

 tume general commendation from almost every quarter of the globe in 



which vinos are grown, requiring only the simple treatment prescribed 

 in iLLUSTiiATKD CATALOGUE, and also in Gaiiuenku's Manual, for con 

 stant unfailing success. 



It is a great error for purchasers to buy inferior vines, thinking tc 

 bring them up to good condition by their own superior management. 

 The fact should always be borne in mind that vines can be much more 

 cheaply brought to good condition by the propagator than by the 

 vineyardist or gardener, leaving out the consideration of loss of time. 



Plate No. 11 re])resents a transplanted vine of best quality, which 

 will produce the results ascribed to that represented by Plate No. 9. 

 Plate No. 12 represents a vine grown in a box or crate, having a lattice 

 bottom and sides, by which a sufficient quantity of roots at the center 



Plate No. 17. 



remain undisturbed by both transplanting and transportation ; and 

 consequently the vines, if well grown, are able to produce a crop the 

 first season. The capacity of the boxes is greater than that of the 

 largest pots in which vines are grown for fruiting, and they are filled 

 with soil, specially prepared to induce the formation of fibrous, fruit- 

 bearing roots, which is also further favored by the position given to the 

 tejer. These plants are not only better in consequence of these atten- 

 tions, which can not be given to otlier layers, besides the advantage of 

 not being checked by transplanting. These will be more than two 

 years in advance of an extra single-eye plant like Plate No. 9. By ad- 

 ditional care and expense, vines from single-eyes, more advanced to- 

 ward productiveness than the one shown at No. 9, may be grown in 

 pots, as represented by Plate No. 13 ; but when taken from the pots, 

 and the soil shaken from them, one year of time is lost by transplant- 

 ing. By sending them in the pots this is saved, and the bearing is 

 hastened. As these require special management to secure their full 

 advantages, directions for the purpose will accompany the plants. 



An impression prevails extensively, that by the increase of age sim 

 ply, the time of productiveness is advanced, and that an ordinary vine 

 of three or four years old is as much nearer to establishmemt in bear 

 ing than a vine of one year, as it has more years of age. This is a 

 mistake, by which many are disappointed. A vine of four or five 

 years old, as ordinarily grown, will generally give some very imperfect 

 bunches the season of planting, but it will be longer in giving a fill 

 crop than one of the best quality that is only one year old ; and it may 

 be generally stated that vines so old before transplanting, never attain 

 a good bearing condition. Old vines, before planting, must be so se- 

 verely cut back by the operation of root-pruning, that th^y are 

 brought into the condition of one-year-old vines as to length of roots, 

 but with some important advantages lost for the formation of fibrous 

 roots at the center, which can not be regained by any course of treat- 

 ment. 



Plate No. 14 represents a Delaware vine, one year old, of best selec- 

 tion, grown in open ground. It is not as well furnished with fibrous 



Plate No. IS. 



roots as if grown In a pot, but is larger, and if projjcrly treated by 

 root-pruning and planting, will bear very early and abundantly. If 

 suffered to remain until two or three jears old before transplanting 

 and root-pruning, it will present the apiiearance shown in Plate No. 1.5, 

 the fiber having nearly or quite left the parts where it should be, and 

 gone to the extremities of the roots, where it will he all cutoff at root- 

 pruning, and will only be rei)laced at the ends where the cuts are 

 made, and not along the sides of the roots. It is not difficult to make 

 iboots spring out of the old branches of vigorous vines, but very diffi- 



Plate No. 22. 



cult, If not impossible, to make new roots spring from the sides of old 

 ones. The vine at one year old was worth more for planting than it 

 could be ever after, excei)t by being subjected to the operation of 

 tiansplanting and root-pruning, by which it would be brought into the 

 condition of the one represented in Plate No. 11. 



Grafted vines need peculiar treatment, without which they generally 

 disappoint expectations. The union of scion and stock is generally 

 very imperfect, and the vines thus produced are greatly disposed to 

 reject the stock, and form their own roots. This should be favored by 



