TIME TO PRUNE VINES. 127 



where they seldom pass the first season without being 

 attacked by disease. 



It is not necessary for us to follow strictly any of 

 the European systems of culture or training, but by 

 gathering from foreign experience that which is of value 

 to us, and sifting out principles from prejudices, we 

 may arrive at facts which are very important. 



It is not necessary, nor would it be judicious, for us 

 to undertake to dwarf the native vine to that extreme to 

 which it is carried in some parts of Europe, but we may 

 stop midway between it and the wild vines of our forests. 

 I know there are some who are continually pointing to 

 the wild vine as an example of what the cultivated vine 

 should be, and they tell us that these vines bear fruit 

 and are free from disease. This we are ever ready to 

 admit ; but we are not cultivating the wild vine, but 

 improved varieties, many of which have parted with 

 much of their wild character ; and even if they had not, 

 would these sticklers against progression be willing to 

 plant vines, with a small seedling parent tree by the side 

 of each for its support, and then wait from ten to thirty 

 years for the vine and tree to grow up together, at the 

 end of that time getting no more in quantit} T , with less 

 in quality, than they now compel a cultivated vine of 

 three or four years to give them ? If they are willing to 

 follow nature in every particular, I have not the least 

 doubt that any of the improved varieties will be found 

 to grow and remain healthy without pruning or training. 

 For my own part, I take nature as a guide ; the only 

 difference being that I interpret her differently from 

 that class of vineyardists who follow no system, and 

 thereby are ever ready to thwart nature, but never 

 assisting her. 



There are certain general principles that govern the 

 growth, as well as the fruit-producing powers, of the 

 vine ; and while all the operations in the vineyard should 



