OCT.] GRAPES. 425 



pruning; as therein also lies a mistake. The plants 

 will bleed in autumn, as well as in spring, though 

 not so copiously : in the descent, as well as in the 

 ascent of the sap ; or before the juices have stag- 

 nated in the branches *. 



Referring the reader to the manner in which it 

 is supposed the plants have been pruned and train- 

 ed in March, and in April, the operation of pruning 

 now is simple and easy much, very much less per- 

 plexing and intricate, than as when the greater part 

 of the summer-wood is allowed to grow wild as a 

 bush : the system of some, through an affectation of 

 that only which is natural ; and of others, through 

 slovenliness. Both systems are wrong, egregiously 

 wrong. Grapes do not naturally grow under glass; 

 and so should be artificially pruned, as well as plant- 

 ed. 



We are told in sacred writ, that God himself 

 planted a garden ; not, certainly, to grow wild, 

 however, as we find He afterwards placed our first 

 parent there as gardener: no doubt to prune, as well 

 as to plant, to sow, and to water. Where, then, is 



* This matter is not quite agreed on. Some contend that the 

 sap does not descend to the roots in autumn, but only becomes 

 stagnant, and remains so in the branches till put in motion by 

 heat ; and this argument is supported by the example of the very 

 plant in question, which, in a stove, will grow vigorously, though 

 every root, on the outside, be in a frozen state. That the sap 

 circulates, (as the blood in animals,) is a fact not now disputed I 

 believe ; and certainly, if it does not prove, it leads to an infer- 

 ence, that it may rise and fall with the season. 



