Management of the Vine. 2 ] 7 



improvement ; but I affirm that I have seen no case where 

 covering produced any good. If the roots are perfectly dor- 

 mant it cannot, if they are active it may do much evil, by 

 excluding light, rain, and all atmospheric action from the soil 

 containing the imprisoned roots. The methods of applying 

 heat to the roots, by means of combustion or otherwise, are 

 only so many mischievous absurdities. To create a correspond- 

 ing action between the branches and the roots may be the aim 

 of such appliances, and such an intercourse would seem natural 

 and desirable, but what would be gained were it established? 

 Are grapes produced of better quality, or less subject to disease, 

 at a season when this may be supposed to take place naturally? 

 They are not ; therefore, such things form an addition of wasteful 

 machinery, answering no desirable end. Portable coverings to 

 resist extreme frost or cold rains, to be removed when not 

 wanted, could not do harm ; but, as a permanent covering, glass 

 only could effect such an end, were it desirable. 



Observing a vinery placed at the bottom of a declivity of 

 considerable extent (a most objectionable site, I admit), down 

 which all heavy rains rush until stopped by the wall against 

 which the vinery is placed, and where the water is often lodged 

 several inches in depth, led me to conclude that little inter- 

 course could take place in so unnatural a position, else the 

 vines in the house must have suffered from its chilling effects, 

 Vhich is not apparent; and an experiment upon a large vine, 

 which it was determined to do away with, leaves little doubt 

 upon the subject. The whole of its roots were cut off a few feet 

 from the stem, which was allowed to remain in its position ; yet 

 the plant so mutilated is in no respect different from the others in 

 the house, which are now in bloom. The temperature has in 

 cases of sunshine reached J 00°, without any disposition in 

 the plant to blow. This I think a strong instance of the pos- 

 sibility of feeding a plant by what are so often thought- 

 lessly removed, to save it the trouble of maintaining them. The 

 leaves situate between the roots and the fruit are not necessary 

 towards the mere maintaining of it, and these may, in cases of 

 melons or plants of annual growth, be removed with less injury ; 

 but on the vine these are so situate that their removal is a most 

 direct robbery, and highly detrimental to the welfare of the buds, 

 upon which too many depend for succeeding crops. Frequently 

 grapes produced at the bottom of a house are much inferior 

 to those near the top of the rafters ; caused in some measure 

 by the disposition of the sap to reach the top, but also greatly 

 aggravated by all the leaves within reach being pulled off to give 

 light, or to send with the fruit. A bunch of grapes, and a basket 

 full of leaves to garnish with, is no unusual order ; in the execu- 

 tion of which the first leaves that come to hand are plucked off: 



