Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/87

 Mr. Knight drew conclusions, which enabled him to obtain his, most valuable varieties of apples raised from seed. And when we come to treat of the management of the vine, as prescribed by the French writers, particularly as relates to pruning, and the diseases incident to it, the inference will, I think, appear a most reasonable one, that the French have been long struggling against the effects of age, in most of their varieties: and that to the decay, or extinction of a valuable variety of grape, may probably, with more truth, be imputed the lost, or departing fame, of many vineyards celebrated of old, while others have acquired, or preserved a merited reputation, than to what it is by the French writers generally referred,

""the practice of a blind routine, and the ignorance or forgetfulness of the laws of nature.""

There are authentic records to prove the extraordinary age to which pines will attain; and in ancient, as well as modern history, instances are given of vines, which, for their stature and longevity, were the astonishment of the world: bat Lord Bacon long ago remarked, that the lives of trees are greatly prolonged, when their branches are taken off which could not be the case with those: and Mr. Knight, in the course of his experience, has had occasion to infer, that

"in the culture of the apple and the pear, the life of each