22 



CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS IN GRAPE CULTURE. BY PETER B. MEAD. 



tage of the Best Selection (at four years old) will be doublerl. This is 

 not an exaggerated instance, but a fair representation of every day 

 occurrence. 1 would repeat the assertion that I am often compelled 

 to make, that the best are emphatically the cheapest, as fully demon- 

 strated by innumerable trials. 



The reader will understand that Mr. Mead exhibited specimens of 

 Ihe different kinds and grades as he was speaking, for which Plates 

 Kcs. 5 and 15 may serve tolerably well as illustrations. 



Here are the same grades (Extra and Best Selection) that were 

 begun in pots and finished in the open ground, that have nearly the 

 same value, the roots being larger and the vines also, but not so hard 

 tud fibrous. They had attained a good size in pots before being put 

 out, and have all of the advantage of the transplanted vines of two 

 years, with the additional advantage of carrying more of their excel- 

 lence of constitution into immediate effectiveness than is possible 

 with the vines of two years, when planted in place to fruit. 



Here are No. 1 vines for vineyard planting of excellent quality, 

 and such as will not bring any disappointment ; and here are No. 2 

 .»nd No. S. All of these are excellent vines, and refreshing to behold, 

 (or they all speak of a good measure of success speedily, but each 

 ^rade rei^oves the period of establishment in bearing about one j-ear, 

 :!ud when nearing the lower grades supposes a degree of attention by 

 the cultivator which they are not likely to receive. Here are Nos. 4 

 and 6, which are still much better than very many that are sold for 

 the best vines, and good healthy vineyards may be made from them ; 

 but there is no need of repeating what I have said in regard to the 

 economy of the best vines. Here are vines two years old transplanted 

 .".nd root-pruned, and here are vines that have been well treated to 

 (he time of their establishment in bearing at four years old. I will 

 now prepare all of them for planting by proper pruning 



Now these are all in proper condition for planting ; and although 

 the one four years old will give some imperfect fruit the first season, 

 it does not take so much of the effeetive apparatus of the vine with it 

 into the ground at transplanting as those called Extra, Best Selection, 

 and No. 1 Transplanted, and at three years from transplanting it will 

 "le greatly below any of the three in the value of its produce. 



It is time that this wrong idea of the increase of the value of vines 

 nj- age was entirely got rid of, for it is constantly leading to the most 

 serious disappointments through great expense. All vines, to be 

 valuable and give good permanent results, must, whatever may be their 

 leal age, be brought to the condition of one year old vines, for it is 

 only the roots andwood of one season that are of any value for trans- 

 planting. 



The Lumple statement that a vine is two years old, and has been 

 Irar.spluitel, although it gives an important circumstance concerning 

 It, does imt fully specify its value. A vine that is pretty small at one 

 year old, if it has maintained its health through the entire season, may 

 ()e made to become a pretty good plant at the end of the second, by 

 transplanting and root-pruning, if it receives besides the large amount 

 of additional care that is required. 



'Vithout transplanting and root-pruning it will become a much 

 larger vine, and more attractive to some people, who do not know how 

 to estimate its quality; but the fiber, or secondary roots, near its 

 Center, upon which the value of the plant chiefly depends, will be lost, 

 and with it nearly one year of time, at least. 



By those who are unacquainted with the important characteristics 

 of vines, the one not transplanted would be preferred, from its greater 

 size; but the practiced horticulturist, or vineyardist, who has learned 

 to judge of the vines by their ability to produce in the garden or vine- 

 yard, will not hesitate a moment in choosing the one which has its 

 secondary roots where they can be available, rather than at the ex- 

 tremities of the two-year old roots, where they are all lost by the ne- 

 cessary cutting back at planting. 



In thb way many tolerable vines of two years old, transplanted and 

 root-pruned, are made like those that I now exhibit. 



But the best vines, two years old, transplanted and root-pruned, can 

 only be produced from the best one year old single-eye plants, like the 

 one I now show, by pruning it to the form wliich it now presents, 

 (showing it with the roots cut back to about eight inches in length, and 

 the cane cut to three eyes.) From the ends of each of these roots 

 generally three new ones will be produced, (not certain in number — 

 from two to five,) and along the entire length of the remains of the 



root that has been cut back permanent secondary roots will be pnv 

 duced, which gives the vine remarkable ability to endure and produce 

 occupying tJie ground fully with working roots. 



I have said that the vines which have been shown as single-eyp 

 plants, best selection, are the best plants with naked roots (naked in 

 contradistinction from those grown in lattice boxes, or baskets, and J 

 moved with a sufficiency of the soil in which they were grown) that cm 

 be produced. I must qualify the assertion slightly. The plants of best 

 selection, treated as we have just shown, are equal in all respects to the 

 single-eyes, and have more ability to endure the trials of the first sea-son 

 without injury, and especially where the ground is not in the most per- 

 fect state of preparation, from having been recently done, or where 

 the attendance is not at all times as careful as it should be, and espe- 

 cially in regard to drouth. For myself, I could ask nothing better, for 

 extensive'planting, than the single eye, best selection, which I now 

 exhibit. For tVie large majority of persons who treat their vines pretty 

 well, (not quite so well as I shall teach them to do it in my book,) thia 

 of best selection, transplanted, is preferable. 



I will now show j'ou one of four years old, that has been taken uji 

 for sale, and it is a pity, too, that it has been taken up. It is a fine 

 Delaware, and the crop of next season, which it is abundantly able to 

 bear, would have brought more tiian the price now asked for the vine. 

 Let us now prune it for planting. In the first place, cut one of its 

 large canes entirely away, and tlien cut the other to three eyes, but 

 one of which must be permitted to grow. Only the new root that ha,"* 

 sprung from near the surface can be retained ; all of the res: must 1« 

 cut off, for it will continue dying for two or three years, until it has all 

 disappeared, and the vine becomes a new plant. So it bad better be 

 done thus at once, as all experience teaches. Now you see the three 

 vines, of three different ages, all reduced to the condition of one year 

 old vines for planting. While you are looking at them, I think it may be 

 seen that most of you, with your present light upon the subject, would 

 take the transplanted of two years first, and that of four years last. 

 Vou would be right ; but I will state the case for you a little differently. 

 For the experienced gardener, whose attentions are always bestowed at 

 the right moment, the best selection of one year ; for the attentive 

 amateur, the transplanted best selection ; and for the man who cares ^ 

 nothing about the matter, the vine of four years old. But the time is 

 near when there will be no careless horticulturists, and when good 

 vines, well attended, will be an essential part of every homestead; not 

 to furnish a supply of a score, or a few scores of pounds, to hist only a 

 few days, but hundreds of pounds, for at least si.x months of the year. 



The wish to obtain fruit so beneficial and excellent as that of the 

 grape, as speedily as possible, is so commendable, that I am laboring 

 to encourage rather than to repress it ; and I desire, moreover, to put 

 every one in the Wue way to obtain it abundantly, cheaply, of best 

 quality, and as speedily as possible. 



For general planting, the purchaser of the best plants, from single 

 eyes, never does wrong. 



But there are other kinds of plants, of one year old, that are unob- 

 jectionable in all respects, and will yield fruit sooner, and some of 

 them immediately — that is, the season of planting. 



The vine which I now exhibit is called a Layer,- and is a good repre- 

 sentative of the best quality of that kind of plant. This, you will ob- 

 serve, has two strong canes of bearing wood, each at least eight fei'l 

 long. If these had not been disturbed, but suffered to remain in the 

 ground where they grew, they might have been pruned to two feet 

 each, and suffered to bear from six to twelve pounds of grapes the next 

 season. In consequence of being taken from the soil, for removal to 

 another place, their ability to bear will he greatly lessened, so that four 

 pounds would be a pretty large amount for such a vine to bear the firs* 

 season after transplanting. 



It is only the best of layers, that are skillfully produced from strong 

 healthy mother-vines, prepared for the purpose, that will do this. Or' 

 dinary layers hare no such ability. Such plants are necessarily very 

 expensive, but they are also very valuable. Inferior layers are the 

 poorest of plants, and should be avoided. I will not now attempt to 

 describe the manner of producing good layers, but leave the subject 

 for the present, simply saying very few of them are produced. This 

 one with abundance of secondary or fibrous root, evenly distributed 

 in moderate compass, is a model plant. That with its long, primary 

 root, and stragu'ingi detached secondary roots is to be avoided. 



