On the Cultivation of the Vine. 



333 



system to be great, I determined to make a course of experiments 

 founded, as near as my judgment would permit, on sound physio- 

 logical principles. In the first place, I considered whether or 

 not every bud contained a latent vitality equal to that of the seed, 

 and daily observation, with some experience, furnishing me with 

 an answer in the affirmative, I concluded that the fault lay not 

 in the buds, but in a defect of the union with that principle which 

 causes their developement, namely, heat. Upon this principle I 

 commenced, selecting a weak piece of wood at the lower part 

 of a black Damascus grape vine, which I ran its whole length in 

 summer; being provided with wood for a crop, independent of 

 it, I determined, after making the intended experiment, to cut it 

 out entirely. The following autumn, at the time of pruning, I found 

 it had thirty-two sound well-ripened buds, the whole of which I 

 retained. Knowing that every shoot possesses a natural inclination 

 to break its extreme buds first, I considered that the counteraction 

 of this disposition was every thing needful to be accomplished. I 

 therefore, when the external air was cold, tried the heat of a hot- 

 house near the glazed surface, and found the thermometer averaged 

 from \\ to 2 degrees of heat higher at 10 or 12 inches from the 

 glass than at 1 inch, or nearly in contact with it. The roof of the 

 house in which the experiment was made is two lights deep, and 

 the trellis is attached to the rafters, at an equal distance, conse- 

 quently the vines, being fixed thereto, are at a greater distance 

 from the glass at the upper part of the house by the thickness of 

 the lower light, on which the upper one slides, and therefore, in 

 midwinter, are in a warmer air ; of course, this assists the disposition 

 of the upper buds in their natural habit of breaking first. To 

 counteract this I fixed the shoot at about 10£ inches from the 

 glass at its base, bringing its extreme end close to the glass, by 

 a gradual inclination, at about the 26th bud, and running the 

 remaining part in close contact with the glass to its end. In the 



