PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 265 



created thing, either in the animal or vegetable kingdom, that is not sus- 

 ceptible of improvement. This is the reason why we hold that the culti- 

 vated vine should be closely pruned. The experience of three thousand 

 years proves that the best results are produced by pruning, and its neglect 

 has caused more failures than all other causes combined. 



So much importance was attached to this branch of fruit culture, in 

 olden times, that wine made from unpruned vines was forbidden to be used 

 at the sacred feasts. When the old French monarch wished to strike a 

 death blow to the cultivation of the vine, he forbade the people to prune. 

 One might readily imagine that a king had issued his royal decree against 

 pruning and trimming in this country, if we were to judge by the appear- 

 ance of many of the wild-growing vines that meet our eyes in every city 

 yard, and many times in vineyards, where we should look for better things. 



When we learn the necessity of pruning, and act accordingly, we shall 

 have made one great and sure step towards success in grape growing. 

 One serious impediment to grape culture in this country has been that we 

 had but few good native varieties ; but, thanks to the spirit of improve- 

 ment, this has been in a great measure removed,' and the main thing for us 

 now to learn is, how to prune and train these new and valuable varieties. 

 I will not pretend to describe the best system; there are many good ones 

 that we can modify and adapt to our native varieties. It is said that in 

 Europe every district has a system peculiar to itself. Here every vineyard 

 has one of its own or none. Scarcely any vineyard is pruned two seasons 

 alike, for the vineyardist, not being satisfied with a good crop, is, like poor 

 Oliver, crying for more. Each season he prunes so as to have a little more 

 fruit than the preceding one, until his vines are so weakened by excessive 

 bearing, that mildew, rot and general debility step in and relieve him of 

 further trouble. 



What is true of the vine is also true with other fruits and flowering 

 plants, although the necessity may not be quite so imperative; for there is 

 no annual, biennial or perennial in cultivation that may not be improved by 

 judicious pruning. There is no successful cultivator of the rose, dahlia, 

 crysanthemum or carnation that does not prune his plants. So it is with 

 the orchardist — he prunes his trees annually. We may talk of fancy and 

 concentrated manures, or of good old homely barn-yard manures for the 

 vine, but with them we can only lay the foundation. We need a plain and 

 judicious s^'stem of training, strictly followed to complete the structure. 



Our great error is in not pruning enough, and a majority of persons will 

 begin at the wrong end and prune so as to make the vine grow tall instead 

 of low, and the only reason we ever heard advanced for doing so was that 

 the best fruit always grows at the top of the vine, and therefore they let 

 the vine grow tall, and bear its fruit at a high elevation. The advocates 

 of high trellises point to the wild vine with its fruit 100 feet from the 

 earth. This only proves that the fruit of the vine is generally better and 

 more abundant at the top than at the base, but if that top is but four feet 

 from the earth, the fruit will be better than if it were forty; and here is 

 the foundation ofall the successful systems of training — keep the vines so 

 low that they may be within control, and so prune that the fruit will be 

 produced at the top of the vines, and always within reach of a man's hand. 



