Treatment of the Amcj^icmi Grape -Vine. 263 



During the autumn, the green wood ripens, and forms canes : the leaves 

 fall on the approach of winter, and there remains on the trellis a tangled 

 mass of wood. The vine above and the root below ground are supposed to 

 have attained an approximate, if not such an exact equilibrium as Nature 

 would dictate. But, if the vine is to give us its best results, only a small 

 proportion of buds on the wood of the current season must be allowed to 

 produce fruit the next ; and hence, time out of mind, the practice of prun- 

 ing or cutting away more or less of the ripened wood has been resorted 

 to. This has been done either in the autumn, winter, or spring; and either 

 period has been regarded as appropriate ; though, in the spring, it has been 

 held to be important not to postpone the operation until the season be- 

 comes so far advanced as to cause the vines to bleed after pruning. But, 

 whenever done, the practice has been to cut away the wood to from two to 

 four canes if long pruning is practised, or to spurs if spur-pruning is the 

 system adopted. The result of the operation is, that the normal balance 

 between root and vine has not merely been disturbed, but has been almost 

 destroyed ; and when dormant vegetable life awakens in the spring, and a 

 large unpruned root sends forth its sap, it finds but few buds where there 

 should be many ; and, at once. Nature sets herself to work to restore the 

 balance. The shoots grow rank, and from these laterals push out, and the 

 vine is difficult to control. With an abnormal growth, the shoots are neces- 

 sarily weak, and the weakness of the shoot is imparted to leaf and fruit- 

 cluster ; and if, during inflorescence, there be rains, imperfect fertilization 

 is much more likely to occur, followed by blasting of the fruit, or sloughing 

 of the berries when farther advanced. And this system, pursued year 

 after year, so far disturbs the course of Nature as to leave the vine a ready 

 prey to disease. 



If, then, pruning is essential to vine-culture, and yet pruning as ordina- 

 rily practised is detrimental, if not ultimately destructive, to the vine, it 

 follows that the prevailing systems are inherently vicious, and that some 

 other method of pruning must be practised to meet the requirements of 

 grape-culture ; and this brings me to the system of planting, training, and 

 pruning adopted by Mr. Byington. 



In planting a vineyard, Mr. Byington places his vines from eight to twelve 

 feet apart in the rows, having regard to the richness of the soil and the 



