78 TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND 



In the vear 1789 I let two strong branches grow to their 

 full length without topping them in the summer. In 1790 I 

 trained them in a serpentine form [See Plate 10,] leaving 

 about thirty eves on each shoot, whi-ch produced one hun- 

 dred and twenty-fine bunches of grapes, weighing from one 

 pound to a pound and a quarter each. Every one that saw 

 them said, that the large ones were as fine as forced grapes ; 

 while the small ones produced from branches of the same 

 vine, trained and pruned in the old way, were bad natural 

 grapes, and not above twice the size of large currants*. 



More fully to prove the success attending this experiment, 

 I next year trained five plants in the same way, allowing the 

 shoots intended for bearing wood to run to their full length 

 in summer, training them wherever there was a vacancy be- 

 tween the old trees ; where there was none, I ran them along 

 the top of the v»'"all, without topping them. In Vv^nter I train- 

 ed them in a serpentine manner so as to fill the wall as regu- 

 larly as possible : They were as productive as those in the 

 former year. 



After a three years' trial, I thought I was warranted to 

 follow the same practice with the whole ; and in the year 1793 

 I sent, for the use of his IMajesty and the Royal family, three 

 hundred and seventy-eight baskets of grapes, each weighing 

 about three pounds, without planting a single vine more than 

 there w^ere the preceding year, in which I was able to send 

 onh^ fifty-six baskets of the same weight ; and those so bad 

 and ill-ripened that I was ashamed of them, as they were not 

 fit to be sent to the table. 



In this vear there was more than a quarter of the crop de- 

 stroyed by birds and insects, and rotted by the wet. 



Although the above statement is within the bounds of 

 truth, it may appear to the reader like an exaggeration; but it 

 is in the power of every one, who will follow the directions 

 here given, to prove the advantage that will accrue from this 

 method of training. 



The above experiments were all made on the natural walls, 

 and I hope will be sufficient to convince every unprejudiced 

 person of the great advantage that tire serpentine method of 

 training vines possesses above the common way. 



It may be proper to observe, that the shoots should be 

 brought as near as possible from the bottom of the vine, that 



* I conjure the Ameripan planter to read this with attention. With a 

 due observance of the directions here laid down, how plentiful might good 

 grapes become in Pennsylvania, New-Jersev, and Is"e\v-York ! 



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