72 CULTIVATION 



Willis, which, in 1832, produced twenty-five thou- 

 sand bunches of grapes, and in the succeeding 

 year his neighbors, Messrs. Bromwell and Monk- 

 land, certify that they counted fifty-four thousand 

 four hundred and ninety clusters, omitting small 

 and green ones, which would have added at least 

 three thousand more, making about fifty-eight 

 thousand clusters! One remarks, that those 

 gentlemen should have waited until those young 

 ones grew up; and that to leave three thousand 

 bunches out of the tally, because they were young 

 and green, is really an insult to " Young America." 

 An Isabella vine growing on the premises of Mr. 

 M. C. Webster at Hartford, is worthy of notice in 

 this connection. It is said to be only about six 

 years old, and is planted by the side of a building, 

 and trained upon its walls, and principally covers 

 two sides of the building. The total length of its 

 main branches, I found by actual measurement, to 

 be more than three hundred and fifty feet, and it 

 affords fro™ six to eight b.shel, of grapes annoally, 

 for which the proprietor is offered twelve and a half 

 cents per pound for all which he chooses to dispose 

 of, besides many roots and cuttings which he sells 

 each season. The system of pruning appears to 

 be, merely to cut off 'in the winter, a part of the 

 growth of the preceding year, leaving from two to 

 four buds or joints on each shoot for bearers the 

 coming year. How far his vine will run in fifty or 

 one hundred years, if allowed to extend, and the 

 amount of fruit it will then produce, it would be 



