CONCLUSION. 471 



one who has a suitable location, and will study 

 and apply the conditions of success. "We can 

 not promise, neither can you expect, a full 

 measure of unvarying success from year to 

 year ; for grape culture, like all other branches 

 of industry, is occasionally liable to unfavor- 

 able seasons, and at long intervals one that is 

 exceedingly so, like that we have just passed 

 through. But even such a season is not with- 

 out its lessons. We may learn something, not 

 only of the reliability of varieties, but also of 

 the value of thorough preparation of the soil 

 and judicious training. It has given us re- 

 newed confidence in our preferences and treat- 

 ment,- for we have heard of no cases in which 

 similar ^.treatment has been adopted in which 

 the effects of the season were not comparatively 

 light ; and it has furnished additional evidence 

 of the greater reliability of our best grapes as 

 compared with the poor ones. There is nothing 

 to dishearten in adverse seasons like the past; 

 for they occur so rarely as to be but little 

 feared, and less with grapes than other kinds 

 of fruits. 



When we initiated the movement which re- 

 sulted in the formation of the American Porno- 

 logical Society, we had in view a central society 



