100 American Horticultural Society. 



A city gentleman, some years ago, liad a small yard lilled with a few fruit 

 trees that appropriated every ray of sunshine that managed to penetrate it, 

 and he wanted some grapes. After a careful survey of the situation, he con- 

 cluded, hy a little extra care if necessary, the vine might get a foothold and 

 sufficient nourishment from the same sources the trees did. The vine was 

 planted, and as it grew it was trained up by the side of the house in a single 

 cane, to the eaves of the second story, and given a trellis built from the gut- 

 ter to the roof. An attic window in the roof gave access to the vine for 

 pruning and gathering the fruit, and for years that vine responded annually 

 with a bounteous croj) of delicious fruit, beyond the reach of outside depre- 

 dators. A little "gumi)tion" and Yankee ingenuity did it, and there are 

 thousands of homes far better situated that have no room for a grapevine. 



SUMMER PRUNING. 



Do I believe in it? I do, most assuredly, and practice it, too. Its objects 

 and advantages in directing the energies of the young vine to the growth of 

 wood have already been spoken of in the treatment given the first and second 

 seasons. 



As the vines awaken from their winter sleep in the spring and the buds 

 begin to swell and burst forth, it will be observed that two buds often appear 

 from what seemed but one in a dormant state. The iirst and simplest opera- 

 tion in summer pruning is to rub ofi' one of these and all superllaous ones, 

 wherever and whenever they appear. A simple touch of the finger will do 

 it. The weakest, and generally the lowest one, has to go. If the buds, from 

 any cause, start feebly, the sooner this is done the better for those that re- 

 main; but in cases where they start strong and vigorously, indicating a 

 superabundance of steam under high pressure, it is well to let some of it 

 escape through these channels, and defer their removal till the embryo 

 clusters have appeared. If these shoots have grown a foot or a foot and a 

 half long, no matter; the check to the vine will be the greater, and their 

 removal none the less demanded. The only trouble likely to attend delay 

 in their removal will be the want of moral courage in the operator. It is 

 apt to hurt one's feelings to destroy so many prospective clusters of fruit, 

 and the temptation to allow them to remain is very strong. The remaining 

 shoots are pinched ofT at one or two leaves beyond the last cluster of fruit 

 and all laterals are stopped in the same way as recommended for the young 

 vines to one leaf. 



These bearing canes and laterals after recovering from the check thus 

 given will soon recover and make a fresh start in wood making, and the 

 pinching process is repeated as before, leaving an additional leaf each time. 

 The effect of this treatment is to retard the sap and retain it where it is 

 needed for the full development of buds, leaves and fruit. The leaves re- 

 maining increase in size much beyond their normal proportions, and I have 

 a theory that a strong, vigorous leaf of this kind is most capable of resisting 



