The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-02-05
che Marietta aonrnal.
Marietta. Georgia.
Friday MOraaiwg, Ecb.lS, as6S.
IFrom the Hearth and Home;
WHY DO WE PRUNE 0RAPE-vrNES 2
DY ANDREW s. FULLER.

To many persons no satisfactory "'-
swer can be given to tlfis question:
They will posnt to tho wild vine OF the
forest, and tell us that Nature never
prunes these plants, and yet They pro-
duce fruit abundantiy. We are also tre-
quentiy informed by these same philoso-
piers, that Nature is our best guide in
these matters, and to follow and obey
her teachings is the height of wisdom !;
all of which we are willing to admit,
provided they allow us to decide what
portion belongs to nature and what to
art.
Nature never made an overcoat nor q
silk dress, but she furnishes the materi-
ais for both and we might with the
same propriety accuse The lady who
wear, silk dress of interfering with
natural laws, as the man who prunes his
vines for the silk must be do
stroycd while in the pupa state in order
to produce our best quality of silk, and
this is certainly thwarting Nature.
The Same is true with our operations
in the vegetable kingdom; for we plant,
prune, hybridizc, cultivate, and remove
plants from one country to another, or
from their native l,abitats to our gar
dens; and all these changes are more or
less unnatural. The moment that we
commence cultiyating plant, it is
placed under artificial conditions, which
may eventually compel us to adopt sys-
tenn for controlling its inherent powers,
quite at variance with its natural habits.
If we take the wild vine from the woods,
which bears only its few small punches
of fruit, and these of an inferior quality,
and from this stock produce variety
like the Delaware, Iona, or Concord, 1t
must DC apparent that great change
has taken place, not only in the eharac-
ter of the fruit, but also in the plant IL
self. There are, however, certain char
actcristics, which will remain unchang'
ed--for instance: the fruit will always
be produced upon the young growing
wood that springs from buds formed on
the wood the preceding year. 1t is
Just here that we can find a pretty safe
guide for pruning the vine, no matter
what system is adopted in training
Suppose we take an old Isabella grape
vine, such as arc found in almost every
garden: the first thing to be observed
is whether it has any good, wcll-riPen-
cd, one year old wood if SO, every bud
upon it may be looked upon as promise
for three punches Of grapes. But it
must not be expected that a young cane
ten feet long, containing twenty buds,
can sustain sixty lunches Of fruit and
each weighing a half pound or more /;
consequently, we prune away all but a
small portion--say one or two feet OF
the lower and stronger portion of the
cane may BIO allowed to remain for bear
ing fruit.
If the vine remains unpruned, nature
will make an effort to force all, or nearly
all, of the buds into growth, and each
young cane may show signs of fruit, but
it will seldom mature; whilo if only a
small number of buds are left, they will
receive sufficient nourishment from the
roots to fully develop and mature the
fruit upan them. If vine is old, and
has large number Of healthy one-year-
old canes upon it, each may be pruRed
back to about five or six buds from its
base, for it is seldom safe plan to leave
more than this number upon any one
cane, however strong. 1t is far better
to prunc too severely than not enough,
because, as general rule, the less fruit
a vine is allowed to bear, the larger Md
better it will be.
Sometimes the buds near the base OF
a vigorous cane will not be fully devel-
oped; in that case, an extra number
may be left to make up the deficiency.
The time of year has now arrived for
commencing the pruning Of vines, al
though there need be no hurry about it
till next month; but no harm will come,
and, perhaps, some good will result,
from giving few leisure moments to
this subject Of pruning.
/ presume that most of the readers of
the Hearth and Home will attend per-
sonalIy to the pruning of their grape
vines, and if they will frequently ask
themselves this question:" ''Why do we
p~une 7" and think, as we'll as work,
they will find that it requires far less
scientific knowledge to become an ex-
pert in grape-growing than they had
reasons to suppose.
"AAEisrER, how do you sell your beef
this morning 7"
lkWhv fnnrtoen cents q nf,und-hox