ANNUAL MEETING—1868. 
683 
cold moist air and early and late frosts, drifting from still lower and un¬ 
drained lands. I should, however, prefer an elevated situation, where pro¬ 
tection could be had from our strong southwest wind which I find is the worst 
enemy to grape-growing we have. 
Modes of Propagating ,—As to the best method of propagating the grape 
vine, there is every variety of opinion, some arising in uncommon sense and 
some in very common selfishness. I am not disposed to discuss conflicting 
opinions just at this time, but shall content myself by saying what I find, and 
therefore what I know to be the case, that for the buyer there is but one 
kind of propagated vine worth buying and that is the cutting ; not the poor, 
half grown cutting, but the cutting that is thick and strong,, made not only for 
growing wood but for bearing fruit in abundance and of good quality. The 
man who buys a poor cutting, a small straw-like thing, is a fool, and he who 
sells one is no true nurseryman. 
I know of no other guaranty that we can have for a good vine, other than 
a strong cutting. This raising from single eyes is a very paying plan for 
those nurserymen in the East, who live in glass houses, have plenty of money 
and an equally plentiful lack of conscience. For them they can afford to 
ignore nature and apply steam to vegetation that knew no existence during 
the steamy days of creation. My experience with vines raised from single 
eyes is just what one might naturally expect. They are weak, and like all 
other weak organisms, are very subject to disease. Weakness means want 
of life and also a strong tendency to death. I care not, however, how the 
vine looks, since I know that it is as impossible in vegetable as in animal 
life to get good fruit where there is a lack of vitality. So too with propaga¬ 
tion by layering, so commonly practiced by our nurserymen in the West, 
only however for want of capital to build glass houses. It is held and I think 
with justice, that such a mode of propagation is injurious to the parent vine, 
and that it is impossible to continue this system with any vine, without 
weakening its plants. Besides, there is another objection which is said to 
apply here. I mean the spcrrting of vines. A layer does not always follow 
the habits of its parent, and therefore is not always to be depended upon. 
In making these remarks however on layering it is always proper for me to 
say, that I have had but little experience in the system, nor have I any ex¬ 
perience in raising vines from seed. In raising from cuttings, I select none 
but perfectly ripened wood, of good size, cut them, in the middle of Novem¬ 
ber, to three or four eyes, or if the joints are long, but to two eyes, and a 
piece of light soil having been prepared for them on the same day, with the 
garden fork, I run a line the length of the bed and then forcing a spade into 
the earth about four or six inches, as the cuttings may require, from end to 
end of the line, opening the earth some ten inches at the top. I have a 
narrow trench in which I place the cuttings, four inches apart, for the con¬ 
venience of digging up again, placing them in the trench obliquely. The 
row being completed, the trench is carefully closed by slowly treading it 
together, a foot on either side of the row, leaving an inch or so of the cut- 
