372 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and the highest quality to produce the highest condition of intellect. It 

 is, therefore, important that we should study to increase earth's products, 

 and improve their quality, to produce the highest condition of perfection 

 in man, A man, it is true, may be a glutton, and consume mountains of 

 flesh and rich dishes, but that is not the point. It is, that we all should 

 consume the best food possible to be produced, and in sufficient variety to 

 give healthy results. 



Prof. Mapes. — It is not the most costly, or the most luxurious living 

 that we would advocate, but it is a variety of food. The difficulty is, that 

 we are tempted, sometimes, by a variety of dishes at one meal, to eat too 

 much. This is no argument against variety of food. As to the simplicity, 

 alluded to, of the rice food of China, it must be remembered that they are 

 the best cooks in the world, and make a great variety of dishes out of one 

 simple article of food ; and it is very true that some of the Chinese pos- 

 sess a very high order of intellect. It is not a necessity that man should 

 eat a great quantity of meat, or drink alcohol, to produce a high order of 

 intellect. Simple as the Chinaman's food is, the nation produces mechan- 

 ics of high order. We haven't brains enough even to find out how the 

 Chinaman solders his tea-lead. The Chinese are ahead of us in a great 

 many of the mechanical and fine arts. There isn't a man outside of China 

 that can take the rattan bands of the ordinary tea-chest off and tie them 

 on again as John Chinaman did. There is another fact, that, although the 

 Chinese have not the great variety of material for food that we have, they 

 have the art of making a great variety of food-dishes. They have the 

 taste for variety, and the ability to procure it out of simple means. Man 

 certainly requires a great variety of food, and that which is the richest in 

 the elements that constitute the living man; but it is a great mistake to 

 think that those articles of simple food must be concocted into "made 

 dishes " of various things which destroy health. 



VINE PRUNING — PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING IN THE FALL. 



Andrew S. Fuller gives the following as the philosophy of fall pruning : 

 During active growth of leaves and stems, the liquid portion of the sap is 

 exhaled almost as fast as it enters the vine. When cold weather 

 first checks growth, it does not affect the roots, which continue absorbing 

 food. In autumn, then the vine becomes surcharged with sap, which, 

 during winter, undergoing its natural chahge, would deposit solid matter 

 throughout the entire length of the vine, so that each bud would be equally 

 supplied with its quota of food to commence vegetation anew in Spring. 

 Now, suppose a portion of the vine is cut away in the fall, or early winter, 

 it is apparent that what remains has the whole root for its support, and it 

 may receive all the strength that would have been diffused throughout the 

 unpruned vine. These few buds will, of course, put forth in spring much 

 more vigorously, and continue to send out fruit-bearing wood in greater 

 perfection than it is possible for an unpruned vine to do. 



The rule for pruning, then, should be: If the vine is weak, prune early. 



