200 THE GBAPE CULTURIST. 



with grape culture than whisky or starch making had to 

 do with corn growing, or cider making and the produc- 

 tion of apple jack should necessarily be recognized as a 

 part of pomology. Two hundred years ago, when John 

 Evelyn wrote his "Pomona," it would not have been 

 thought complete without those wonderful chapters on 

 "The Making and Ordering of Cyder !" The man who 

 writes a book on apple and pear culture, at the present 

 time, would hardly think it in his line to tell how to 

 make perry and cider, nor would it be expected of him. 

 I shall therefore depart from the general rule, and for 

 two reasons : 1st. I believe that wine and brandy mak- 

 ing do not necessarily belong to grape culture. 2. I 

 should not be able to give any information from actual 

 experience ; and I believe the reader will agree with me 

 that in horticulture, at least, none have a right to be- 

 come teachers until they have, themselves, been scholars. 



There are plenty of men in our country who know 

 how to make wine, and from them we should get correct 

 information upon the subject, provided they can be per- 

 suaded to give it, and none others should be heeded. It 

 is not every one who attempts to make wine, that accom- 

 plishes it ; for every vineyardist does not know how to 

 make wine, any more than every wine maker knows how 

 to grow grapes. 



My main object, in writing this book, was to aid 

 those who might desire to raise grapes for home use or 

 market, and at that time, now thirty years since, 

 good table grapes were very scarce everywhere in this 

 country, and very few persons who planted vines in their 

 gardens, or elsewhere, had any clear ideas of how they 

 should be pruned or trained; and very much of this 

 ignorance still remains, even with the immense amount 

 of information published on the subject during the past 

 two or three decades. But professional vineyardists have 

 increased in numbers immensely during these years, and 



