24 CULTIVATION 



pruning can be readily understood by the figure, 

 and by the directions given. In this mode, the 

 vine may be perpetuated and kept within a rea- 

 sonable compass. But if some such rule is not 

 adopted, your vine will grow beyond your reach, 

 and bear fruit only at the extremities, leaving an 

 unsightly mass of large old branches neay the 

 ground. In this country, where if neglected, vines 

 will sometimes cover an acre of ground, and become 

 dead and worthless in a few years, it is necessary 

 to look to its perpetuity by good cultivation, and 

 keeping it in proper compass. It is proper in the 

 spring of the year, to strip off the ragged bark and 

 moss which gather around the trunk, which will 

 otherwise become a harbor for insects, and have a 

 bad appearance. Washing with soap-suds gives 

 the trunk a clean and healthy appearance." 



Judge Woodruff, while on his European tour, in 

 1828, distributing supplies to the suffering Greeks, 

 says, " Dec. 28th, T called on Mr. Loring, and rode 

 out on horseback with him toward Malaga, about 

 five miles, and had the satisfaction to see scores of 

 vine-dressers now employed with their pruning- 

 hooks in the vineyards. They cut away every new 

 branch at the old stock excepting three or four, and 

 on these they leave but three or four buds for next 

 year's growth. The stumps stand in rows about 

 five feet apart, and when pruned have the appear- 

 ance of dead shrub-oak stumps, six or eight inches 

 high." At Egina he says, " The vines are planted 

 in rows three and a half feet distant from each other, 

 and are suffered to grow about five feet high, rest- 



