262 Treatment of the American Grape -Vine. 



the trellis is not yet fully covered, the vines will each yield from a hundred 

 to two hundred pounds of fine, showy clusters of grapes ; while on the 

 adjoining rows, where the vines are but sixteen feet and a half apart, 

 there will not be over twenty pounds of indifferent fruit to each vine. 



If, from the facts I have here presented, there are any laws to be deduced, 

 of practical significance in vineyard-culture, they are these : — 



1. The normal growth of a grape-vine is in proportion to the richness of 

 the soil in which it is planted. 



2. When the root has so far increased in its size as to disturb the rela- 

 tive proportion which should exist between it and the vine, it will spend 

 its energies in endeavoring to restore the equilibrium by an increased 

 growth of vine, the efficiency of which will be seriously impaired for bear- 

 ing fruit. 



3. The distance to be observed in planting vines along the line of the 

 trellis must depend upon the richness of the soil. 



To this system of wide planting and high training (the results of which, 

 as presented, are beyond dispute) I have heard but a single objection or 

 criticism. A gentleman of large experience as a grape-grower and wine- 

 maker in this country has asserted to me that grapes grown on vines thus 

 treated are inferior in quality to those which are grown on vines closely 

 planted ; and that, for use in the manufacture of wine, they are especially 

 defective in not possessing the necessary saccharine properties. As this 

 is purely a question of fact, it can only be determined by a practical test ; 

 and arrangements have been made by the New- York State and Lake-Shore 

 Grape-Growers' Associations to have the musts of grapes grown under 

 these different conditions tested this fall by the must scale. 



But, besides the wide planting and high training peculiar to the vineyards 

 of Naples Valley, a resident grape-grower, Mr. A. J. Byington, has for many 

 years practised a system of pruning peculiar to himself, which, in connec- 

 tion with wide planting, has been attended with the most marked success. 

 As the system is the result of intelligent study and observation, I will en- 

 deavor to state the theory upon which Mr. Byington proceeds. 



During the season of growth, Nature has pushed out from each bud left 

 on the vine at pruning a shoot, from which laterals and even sub-laterals 

 have in their turn been produced, with leaves, tendrils, fruit, and buds. 



