56 THE vine-dkesser's manual. 



American vines on American soil should be entirely 

 different. I can only say, that wild grapes may 

 be seen in our woods, and in Asia even at this day, and 

 by comparing with them the cultivated grape, this 

 error wUl readily be discarded. Perseverance through 

 centuries has improved the grape to what it is. The 

 experience of European vine-dressers is that of their 

 predecessors, the Asiatics, as may be learned even out 

 of the Bible, modified, to be sure, but modified with 

 reason and judgment, as we should again modify. The 

 writer of this has seen hundreds of acres of vineyards 

 in this country, and he would unhesitatingly say, that 

 the best vineyards, — not for a season or two, but for 

 ten (and no doubt fifty) years, — are those which are in 

 the hands of such vine-dressers as follow carefully, and 

 systematically, the most approved European modes of 

 trimming. I do not mean, thereby, such as follow 

 blindly and mechanically, but such as, having studied 

 and examined European practice, have adapted it to 

 their own locality and circumstances, being able to un- 

 derstand its principles and apply them. 



We will endeavor to make the matter as plain as 

 possible, both in this chapter as in those that follow 

 upon this subject. The reader will remember, that if 

 the grapevine has been properly taken care of and 

 trimmed, it will in the spring of the fourth year pre- 

 sent the following appearance : 



