I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
wanted to talk with you about Mr. Bright’s new 
book on grape culture. What do you think of it 1 
Gardener. —I have just finished reading it, and 
I like it, and yet don’t like it. His method is so 
simple that any body can understand and prac¬ 
tice it. It is systematic ; the work of pruning 
and training is reduced to a few plain rules, with 
bo hap-hazard about it, and that is a good thing. 
And I like it because it enables one to keep the 
vine under control, both in Winter and Summer. 
John. —I confess I have got tired of reaching 
and stretching up to my old fashioned trellis bars, 
seven and eight feet high, to prune and train my 
vines. And then, in following some of the com¬ 
mon rules for training, I often find myself both¬ 
ered and perplexed. The buds won’t start where 
I want them to, and where, according to the sys¬ 
tem, they ought to start; and then again they push 
out with double vigor just where I don’t want 
them at all. 
Gardener. —Very true, but then I don’t feel pre¬ 
pared, as yet, to adopt this man's theory in ref¬ 
erence to dwarfing the vine, and growing the 
fruit on one short cane. Let us see exactly what 
he says : I have got his book here, under the 
seat: On page 6, he says : “ My system is in the 
main, a method of fruiting the vine on a single, 
short cane, with very short lateral branches— 
growing new wood from the main stem one year, 
and fruiting it the next; dwarfing the vine by a 
definite rule of stopping and pruning, and renew¬ 
ing the entire wood of the vine (except a small 
portion of the main stem,) every other year.” 
Now, I question whether it will answer to cut 
down our rampant growing vines in this barbar¬ 
ous way, and confine them to a stake not much 
longer than this spade. Go out into our forests, 
and see what the natural.habits of the grape-vine 
are, clambering up over the tops of trees sixty 
or seventy feet high ; and yet this writer says, 
to get healthy vines and fruit, we must allow 
only one cane to grow from the root, must stub 
that cane down every other year, to within a few 
inches of the ground, and, as a general rule, 
never let it grow higher than four or six feet! 
John. —Don’t get excited. This is only a theory 
of his, he has not tried it long enough yet, to pro¬ 
nounce upon its practical working for a series of 
years. He began bis experiments, he says, in the 
year 1858, and then published his book in 1859 
in advocacy of the system as better than all others ! 
Rather fast, we sober and modest people would 
say. But perhaps he thought he had hit upon 
something really valuable, and if so, the sooner 
the world heard of it, the better. 
Gardener. —Well, we ought to be charitable. 
But I must doubt the expediency of cutting down 
the vine so often and so severely as he recom¬ 
mends. Of course, it must be pruned somewhat 
every year, to keep it within bounds, and to get 
handsome fruit, but why distort and mutilate it 
more than is necessary 1 This wholesale butch¬ 
ery must keep the plant in a state of constant 
excitement, which will soon show its effects in 
destroying the vitality of the plant. 
Mr. Bright claims originality for his method. 
Yet, I don’t see as therg is much of that to boast 
of. According to the German method practised 
at the West, one cane of a vine is trained up to 
a stake for fruiting the present year, while anoth¬ 
er is growing, to fruit the next year ; the original 
cane being cut out at the Winter pruning. 
(Sometimes, two canes bear fruit while two oth¬ 
ers are growing ) The only difference between 
the two systems is, that in one case, the whole 
plant bears fruit one year and grows a cane the 
next ; and in the other, the plant bears fruit on 
one cane, and grows a new cane at the same 
time. If the roots are allowed room enough, I 
do not see why the German system is not just 
as philosophical as Mr. Bright’s : indeed, there is 
no radical difference between them. 
John .—Is it not believed by some, that the fre¬ 
quent attacks of blight in European vineyards and 
in our vineyards at the West, is owing partly to 
the practice of close pruning 1 And if so, I 
should think that Mr. Bright’s plan of lopping still 
more severely, would work much greater mischief. 
Gardener .—Just so. In some parts of Europe, 
the vineyards have to be renewed frequently. 
And Mr. Bright himself seems to expect that his 
method will shorten the lives of his vines, and 
he proposes to renew them by layering when 
they fail. But when we consider that the vine 
is naturally very long-lived—witness the famous 
Black Hamburg at Hampton Court, England, 
over 200 years old, and bearing annually a tun of 
grapes—then how unnatural and cruel the sys¬ 
tem which would hack down a plant so terribly, 
that it must necessarily die in a few years! 
Suppose we should treat any other fruit-bearing 
plant so, would it prosper long! Take an apple 
or pear tree: compel it to make only one long 
central branch in a season, fruit it (if sucli a thing 
were possible) the alternate year, then saw it off 
within a foot of the ground, train up another cen¬ 
tral branch to be fruited the next year, and soon 
from year to year, what would be the result! It 
would grow weaker and weaker, and finally 
dwindle down to a mere stump, with a few wa¬ 
tery, mildewed branches near the ground. And 
if the grape-vine, being more tenacious of life, 
don’t give out quite so soon, is it because the 
treatment is natural and proper! 
John. —Now, I verily believe we are pruning 
Mr. Bright as mercilessly as he would do our 
vines; still, as he has set himself up as an au¬ 
thor and teacher, he must expect criticisms. 
Let us, howe-ver, be good natured. What do you 
think of his notions about shallow planting! 
Gardener .—There is some sense in them as ap¬ 
plied to trees, especially evergreens, but as to the 
grape, I’m in doubt. The vine loves to send 
down some of its roots quite deep ; it wants 
moisture in the dog-days. Not long ago, I read 
that European vine-growers are becoming more 
and more convinced of the importance of deep 
tyenching, to allow the vine-roots to ramble below 
as deep as they please. In such soils they suffer 
less from sudden changes of the weather. 
John.—I don’t think we can quarrel much with 
his plan of shallow culture, since he recommends 
plowing and subsoiling at least eighteen inches 
deep, and has “ no objection to the application 
of an abundance of well decomposed sod or peat 
compost, made with one fourth part of stable 
manure, and some leaf mold and bone-dust.” 
Nor can I object much to what he says about the 
propagation of grapes, or their culture in pots in 
glass houses. Some things which he recom¬ 
mends are yet a matter of experiment; but I hope 
they will turn out well. 
Gardener .—But I have been expecting you 
would bring your sharp knife down upon his 
Patent Grape Fertilizer, spoken of on page 81, 
and onward. 
John .—I don’t want to say any thing about it, 
and am sorry Mr. Bright has said any thing about 
it. It has done more than anything else to pre¬ 
judice the public against him and his system. 
Read this : “ The Grape Fertilizer contains am¬ 
monia, phosphoric acid, potash, salts of lime, and 
soda, iron, etc., etc., all the inorganic elements 
of vine and fruit, in proper combination with veg¬ 
etable acids, especially the tartaric acid.” And 
then, that advertisement at the close of the book 
307 
is enough to spoil the whole Bright’s Grape 
Fertilizer is sold in casks or bags, at $45 per tun, 
or 2! f cents per pound by the single bag. City 
Depot for the Fertilizer at” etc., etc. What a 
blunder ! For his own sake, I hope he will drop 
the Fertilizer out of the next edition of bis book. 
But I have talked too long, this morning, and 
must hasten back to my work. Good bye ! 
More Curious Superstitions. 
Before scientific investigation had made known 
the actual properties of plants , the most whimsi¬ 
cal fancies were received and firmly believed in. 
Thus, every plant was supposed to be under the 
influence of a planet ; each planet reigned para¬ 
mount over a certain part of the human frame, 
and the herbs under its influence were believed 
to supply the proper medicine for that portion of 
the body. Another method of detecting the vir¬ 
tues of plants was by “ signature,” and was 
founded on the idea that “ nature has stamped 
on divers plants legible characters, to discover 
their uses. So yellow flowers were held the 
natural medicine for yellow jaundice ; spotted 
herbs for the removal of freckles ; and the 
tooth-like shape of the henbane seed was suffi¬ 
cient proof that its juice would cure the tooth¬ 
ache. The medicinal properties attached to 
some plants by the herbalist are indeed astonish¬ 
ing. “ Eye-bright” wdne will not only enable old 
people to read without spectacles, but has been 
known to restore sight to the blind ; valerian 
juice draws iron or wood out of flesh ; cowslip 
water restores beauty; and a single spoonful of 
the juice of the mallow is a preservative forever 
from all diseases ! Rue renders a man subtile, 
quick, and inventive; sage strengthens the 
memory, and rejoices in so many virtues, that 
one of its panegyrists asks, “ How is it that one 
who grows sage in his garden can ever die!” 
Some curious recipes are furnished by these 
old herbalists. There is one—never in much de¬ 
mand, we opine—“ good against merrie gals,” 
and another “ to kill a man in such a sort as 
though he seemed to die laughing.” Two wal¬ 
nuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue, beaten 
together and eaten fastin a , would preserve against 
plague or poison for a day. Dogs, we are told, 
take grass as an emetic; asses, when afflicted 
with melancholy, recover their spirits by eating 
milk waste; wild goats expel arrows from their 
flesh by eating dittany ; serpents clear their eyes 
with fennel. Adder’s-tongue, put in the left ear 
of a horse, will make him fall down as if dead; 
but on its removal, he will become livelier than 
ever; while if asses feed much on hemlock, 
they will fall so first asleep, that “some, thinking 
them to be dead indeed, have flayed off their 
skins ; yet after they have done operating, the 
beasts have stirred and waked out of their sleep, 
to the grief and amazement of their owners, and 
the laughter of others.” Mandrake, “ that pro- 
cureth love, in poisonous filters mixed,” bore a 
fearful reputation. It was said to spring up un¬ 
der the gibbet, from the blood of the malefactors; 
to resemble the human form in shape ; and not 
only shriek when pulled out of the ground, but 
punish any man attempting to remove it with 
madness or death, so that it was customary to 
employ dogs for that purpose. 
Worthy of Imitation. —The Southern Cayuga 
Union Agricultural Society have offered prizes of 
$5, $2, and a diploma, for the greatest number ot 
shade and ornamental trees to be set out in the 
Fall of 1860 and Spring of 1861, which shall be 
I alive on the 1st of September, 1861. 
