54 CULTIVATION 



droughts. Plow or dig your ground exceedingly 

 deep, before you plant your vineyard, I have found 

 that in seven years' culture, the savage musk of my 

 Isabella has vanished, and its character is greatly 

 changed for the better* Its pulp is almost gone, 

 and its seeds are less. The culture of the vine has 

 one great and eminent advantage over all other 

 crops. If you plant it well, you will get an increas- 

 ing crop for twenty-five years; and for every year 

 (with rare exceptions) a good crop even for seventy- 

 j&ve years, and on our native vines you can have 

 double the quantity which is obtained from a vine 

 in Europe, where it has from ages of short pruning, 

 become feeble, and past its perfection. We do not 

 let our vines bear one-half as many grapes as they 

 would if all were left on. Thin them out well, and 

 you will have better and richer fruit," 



From the Genesee Farmer^ 1854 : " The use of 

 grapes as an article of food, is much recommended 

 in cases of consumption. They contain a large 

 quantity of grape sugar, the kind which most nearly 

 resembles milk sugar in its character and composi- 

 tion, which is also useful for consumptives, it having 

 a great attraction for oxygen, and readily affording 

 materials for respiration." 



The writer is not to be understood as fully in- 

 dorsing all which has been or might be quoted in 

 favor of the daily and free use of wine by persons 

 in health, but rather is desirous of sustaining the 

 opinion substantiated by reliable evidence and 

 by common sense, that the home production and 



