Grape -Growing in Virginia. 331 



acre. I know, when this communication is read by the knowing ones and 

 the scientific, they will laugh, and say he is a greenhorn for letting his vines 

 bear so young, and allowing so much wood to grow. In reply, I will say, I 

 have been thirty years growing grapes, and have tried every way laid down 

 in the books ; close pruning three years before a grape was allowed on the 

 vine, and then only a few bunches. Close pruning I think a great injury to 

 the vine : the growth will be too great, and the wood soft. Visitors from 

 other States say I am wrong for allowing my vines to bear so young, and 

 predict they will soon be exhausted. I tell them, Thirty years' practice and 

 experimenting enables me to know what I'm about. A gentleman from 

 New York has recently purchased land here, and will plant a hundred acres 

 in grapes. He said he would trench his land two feet ; but when he saw my 

 vines, and found that the land had only been ploughed ten inches, he said 

 he would abandon the trenching; and he had long had experience in 

 grape-growing. 



The Catawba and Concord Grape will, in this chocolate loam, bear from 

 five to eight good crops of grapes free from rot. When the old vines be- 

 gin to fail by the grapes rotting, I turn out a strong cane, starting near the 

 ground; in the spring, layer this cane half way between the vines, in a well- 

 prepared bed: this layer will in two years bear a good crop of grapes. The 

 old vines, after two years more of bearing, may be taken up. In this way 

 you can keep up a good young vineyard, producing a full crop free from 

 rot. The culture of the grape, and manufacture of wine, in the South- 

 ern States, is an interest worthy of much more attention than is supposed. 

 The profits are very large for the labor bestowed ; and there is no danger 

 of overstocking the market. Our climate is the grape climate ; our soil, 

 the grape soil. The regular heat of our summers develops all the good 

 qualities of the grape in great perfection. This fall, my vines will have the 

 second trimming. If the cane is very strong, and the laterals good, I shall 

 cut off all the branches and suckers, top the cane to six feet, and cut the 

 lateral branches, leaving from two to five eyes. When the cane is not so 

 strong, and has but few side-branches, I leave two ; train the one that has 

 the most spurs or bearing wood perpendicular, and the other horizontal, — 

 the latter more to make bearing-wood for another year. I don't like to 

 use manure as long as the vine can do without it. Animal manure should 



