THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 205 



but the main vine stems and supporting posts." He 

 adds : " but I now considei* twenty feet too near, for the 

 Scuppernongs, thirty or forty being better, unless it is in- 

 tended to remove every other one, before they become 

 too large." He saves all the leaves of the vines, and 

 digs them into the vineyard, for manure. Mr. Weller 

 considers this as the true American system of training 

 the vine. The principle of allowing the vine to spread 

 and range freely, during summer, is, undoubtedly, cor- 

 rect, as applied to the American species, and it is what I 

 have recommended for many years. But the system of 

 training up the vine by posts, and then spreading them 

 on flat frame-work, six or eight feet high from the earth, 

 is as much a European plan as the training, them to 

 sticks, &c. I have seen many vineyards thus trained, in 

 Italy, and other countries.* 



In speaking of the great size of the vine, he says : " I 

 measured to-day, a Scuppernong, fourteen years old from 

 planting, and it covers an area whose diameter is fifty 

 feet. Another runs thirty feet on scaffolding, and then 

 ascends an aspen tree, spreading over its branches to the 

 height of about forty' feet ; the tree full of grapes. A 

 vine in the lower part of this state, near the Scupper- 

 nong Island, in the Koanoke, whence this grape and its 

 name originated, produces its annual yield of five bar- 

 rels of wine, I am most credibly informed. 



* " The vineyards are much more beautiful than the German fields of 

 stakes. The vines grow over a frame, higher than the head, supported, 

 through the wliole field, on stone pillars. They interlace and form a com- 

 plete leafy screen, while the clusters han? below." — Page 237. This was 

 on the Italian side of the Alps. Views A-Foot, by J. Bayard Taylor. 

 New York, 1846. 



