802 
THE GRAPE. 
habits, in this climate, and, therefore, must be treated differently 
The native sorts, as the Isabella and Catawba, are cultivated 
with scarcely any farther care than training up the branches to 
poles or a trellis, and are, on this account, highly valuable to the 
farmer, while the European varieties are of little value in this 
climate except with especial care, and are, therefore, confined to 
the garden. 
1. Culture of the Foreign Grape 
The climate of the temperate portion of this country, so fa- 
vourable to all other fruits, is unfortunately not so for the foreign 
grape. This results, perhaps, from its variability , the great ob- 
stacle being the mildew , which, seizing upon the young fruit, 
prevents its further growth, causes it to crack, and renders it 
worthless. Unwilling to believe that this was not the fault of 
bad culture, many intelligent cultivators, and among them men 
of capital and much practical skill, have attempted vineyard 
culture, with the foreign sorts, in various sections of the country, 
under the most favourable circumstances, and have uniformly 
failed. On the other hand, the very finest grapes are produced 
under glass, in great quantities, in our first-rate gardens, espe- 
cially in the neighbourhood of Boston ; in the small yards or 
gardens of our cities, owing to the more uniform state of the 
atmosphere, the foreign grape thrives pretty well ; and, finally, 
in all gardens of the middle States, the hardier kinds may, under 
certain modes of culture, be made to bear good fruit. 
Without entering into any inquiries respecting the particular 
way in which the mildew (which is undoubtedly a parasitical 
plant,) is caused, we will endeavour to state concisely some 
practical truths, to which our own observation and experience 
have led us, respecting the hardy culture of the foreign grape. 
In the first place, it is well known, to gardeners here, that 
young and thrifty vines generally bear one or two fair crops of 
fruit ; second, that as the vine becomes older if it is pruned in 
the common mode, (that is to say the spurring-in mode of short- 
ening the side branches, and getting fresh bearing shoots from 
main branches every year,) it soon bears only mildewed and 
imperfect fruit ; and, finally, that the older and larger the vine, 
the less likely is it to produce a good crop. 
This being the case, it is not difficult to see that, as the vine, 
like all other trees, is able to resist the attacks of disease or 
unfavourable climate just in proportion as it is kept in a young 
and highly vigorous state, it follows if we allow a plant to retain 
only young and vigorous wood, it must necessarily preserve 
much of the necessary vigour of constitution. And this is only 
to be done, so far as regards training, by what is called the re- 
newal system. 
