126 THE GEAPE CULTUHIST. 



native one, and, judging from observation only, condemn 

 not only the foreign varieties, bufc all the modes and 

 systems ever adopted for their cultivation ; some of these 

 cultivators are now groping their way in the dark, fol- 

 lowing no system, because they have been unable to find 

 one in which there is nothing foreign. I have digressed 

 from the more practical part of my subject, to show how 

 readily some will let their prejudices lead them from one 

 fatal extreme to another. 



While I rejoice that the time has come when nu 

 intelligent man in the Northern States would think of 

 planting a vineyard with foreign varieties, still I am not 

 ready to admit that all the experience of the vineyardists 

 of Europe is of no practical value to us. 



The same laws that govern the growth of the foreign 

 vine control that of ours, and I have no reason to doubt 

 that some of the best systems of training that have been 

 so long successfully employed in Europe would, with 

 slight modification, be almost as successful here. I 

 know that it has been repeatedly asserted that the Amer- 

 ican species and varieties of the grape are much stronger 

 and of coarser growth than the foreign ones, conse- 

 quently they cannot be so readily brought under contro 1 , 

 or be kept within similar limits, without destroying their 

 usefulness. But my own experience and observation 

 lead me to think that, so far as regards growth, this is 

 an error, and that, naturally, the foreign are, on the 

 whole, as vigorous growers as are our native varieties. 

 When grown under glass they appear to be more so, and 

 whenever they are grown in a favorable situation in the 

 open air they are not only strong, but often rampanf, 

 growers. We can not arrive at a correct estimate of 

 what their natural growth would be, under favorable 

 circumstances, by what we see in the old vineyards of 

 Europe, where the soil has been under cultivation for 

 centuries, or by observing them in our own country, 



