PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBEU, 1867. 



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CURIOUS EFFECT OF SUMMER PRUNING 

 GRAPES. 



The London Gardeiig^'s Chronicle, in a recent 

 article on "pruning the grape," states that vines 

 in vineries, pruned in September, while the leaves 

 are on, will have the succeeding crop ripen fifteen 

 to twenty days earlier than other vines pruned in 

 November, all other circumstances being equal. 

 " The experiment has been tried for years on vines 

 that yield a supply of fruit from June untilJanuary, 

 and whether in the early or in the late houses, 

 the result is the same. ' ' 



It is very curious to note how often practice is a 

 long way ahead of science. Some 20 to 30 years 

 ago, it was customary with good EngHsh gardeners 

 to mow off the leaves of their strawberry beds to- 

 wards the end of summer. The Gardener s Chron- 

 icle strongly opposed the practice, and showed con- 

 clusively from "science" that it was a barbarous 

 thing, and should be discontinued. The writer 

 of this was convinced by the arguments of the 

 Chronicle, and argued for the retention of the leaves 

 to the latest moment. But our American exper- 

 ience taught us that there were times when, in 

 spite of the supposed laws of vegetable physiology, 

 mowing off the leaves of the strawberry before they 

 matured, was of immense benefit to the strawberry 

 crop. The readers of our earlier volumes will re- 

 member this question being fully discussed at that 

 time. 



Another recent case is in reference to the tendrils 

 of the grape vine. An old practice was to cut these 

 off from some supposed benefit to the vine. Modern 

 enlightened gardening abandoned the practice, as 

 "without reason," yet Mr. Meehan's paper on the 

 nutrition of motion in tendrils, in the Proceedings 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences, shows the 

 practice to be a very philosophical one. 

 We think this curious result of early pruning another 

 illustration and maybe accounted for on the same prin- 

 ciple that we brought forward at the time referred 

 to, to account for the benefit in some cases, of early 



mowing off strawberry leaves. It is this : — There is 

 a degree of antagonism between the fruit producing 

 and the leaf producing systems of a plant. — 

 All the parts of fructification are but metamor- 

 phosed leaves, and some .check to the full develop- 

 ment of leaves is necessary before the fruit produ- 

 cing system has its birth. A luxuriant growing 

 tree does not bear well. If it receive an injury to 

 its roots or leaves it is thrown into bearing, — and 

 hence arises the axiom that " a tree makes an effort 

 to reproduce itself in proportion to the danger of 

 losing its life. ' ' It is so with a strawberry. If a shy 

 bearer, which runs to leaf, is mowed back while the 

 leaf is still green, it bears more fruit the' next sea- 

 son, but the growth is not so strong. The fruit is 

 increased by the check to the foliage. 



Applied to the grape vine question before us, 

 early pruning, no doubt checks the vigor of the 

 vine, — the result of which is as we have seen, 

 to induce early fruitfidness. One may object that 

 by early fruitfulness is meant shortening the sea- 

 sons, before bearing time, and not any reference to 

 earliness in the same season ; but there can be no 

 doubt, that the same tendency which hastens ma- 

 turity in a young plant, will hasten maturity during 

 the bearing season, and this is confirmed by the well 

 known fact that Mr. Felton often has exhibited 

 Isabella grapes before the Pennsylvania Horticultu- 

 ral Society of wonderful earliness, produced by 

 "ringing." We have, , however, to thank the 

 case Gardener^ s Chronicle for bringing out the 

 so pointedly. 



The fact has a particular value to the American 

 grape grower from the circumstance that a few days 

 of earliness is of immense importance to him, not 

 only in getting his grapes to market, but in getting 

 grapes in localities where the season is too 

 short to ripen some desirable kinds, or indeed any 

 kinds at all. If early pruning is to hasten maturity 

 in this way, there are very few localities in the 

 Union where the delicious Maxatawney will be "too 

 late" to be worth growing, and so of other things 

 besides grapes. 



Above all, the fact published by the Chronicle 

 explains many enigmas in grape experiences. One 

 man will say of one grape, that it ripens ten days 

 before another kind ; another writer, equally reli- 

 able "another" ripened with him equally as many 

 days before the "one." No doubt this difference 

 in the ripening of the same kind may be owing to 

 different modes or times of pruning, or any other 

 treatment that may affect the vigor of the vine. 



We are sure when the matter is fully inves- 

 tigated there will be found many ways to accelerate 



