148 



ON THE INTUODUCTION OF NKW FRUITS. 



the attention of all engaged in the cnltnrc of the grape. This 

 last course is often heneficial, because, by almost constant mo- 

 tion of the pole caused by the wind, the fruit will be protected 

 from being scalded by the sun's rays, an injnry to which it is 

 very liable in many sitnations, and also very much from the 

 mould. For the same reason a common trellis, composed of 

 rather flexible materials, is to be preferred to one constructed of 

 timber, so firm as not to yield at all to the usual motions of the 

 Avind. The best fruit ever obtained is that which grows upon 

 vines attached to the longest and most easily agitated limbs of 

 forest or cultivated trees. The principle involved in this last 

 observation applies with almost or quite as great force to other 

 fruits, and suggests a consideration of a practical nature in re- 

 lation to general priming. A leading question in trimming 

 is the comparative advantages between heading in and thin- 

 ning OUT. The Committee have been led to suppose that ex- 

 tremes here should be avoided. If headed in too much, the 

 tree and limbs wi'l be moved but slightly by the common 

 winds. This will expose the bark on the trunk and large 

 branches to be burned, and the fruit scalded by our hot and dry 

 summer sun. If thinning out is exchisively adopted, the wind 

 blowing upon the wide s[)read branches will be apt to strain 

 and split the lower parts of the large branches, and often to loosen 

 the bark, and to bruise if not to cause the fruit to fall. Grapes 

 being a smaller fruit will remain uninjured by an agitation 

 which would destroy the apple, pear, or any of the large and 

 heavy fruits, but still will often sutler if exposed to violent mo- 

 tion. Trees of almost any kind where they can be spared, af- 

 ford, so to speak the best trellis for vines, certainly in cases 

 where but little labor can be devoted to them. 



But while the Committee judge it well to make this state- 

 ment, in respect of methods of cultivation, they would at the 

 same time say to all who possess any love of fruit, or who have 

 families that like it, take any method that pleases them, or 

 which their friends, with or without experience, or any books 

 written expressly on the subject, are pleased to recommend, for 

 in either way in a very few years, even should the method pur- 

 sued not be the most successful, still it will result in a gener- 



