34 STATE TOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



lower wire, training the shoots that grow from it perpendicularly, tying to upper 

 wires, and heading off just above the top wire. Don't let the laterals grow 

 more than two leaves. Let the two canes that grow from the spur run along 

 the upper wires of the trellis. 



In the fall of the fourth year cut the bearing vine entirely out, back to the 

 arm from whence it grew ; cut the best cane from the spur five feet long for 

 bearing cane next season, and cut the other back for a spur to produce wood 

 for the sixth year. Thus go on each year, cutting out the bearing vine of that 

 year and bending down in its place the best one grown from the spur the pre- 

 vious year, and cutting the other to form a spur again for the next. 



In the spring of each year tie the bearing cane to lower wire, and rub out all 

 shoots that do not show fruit buds. You may also let each shoot or cane 

 grown from the spurs bear fruit each year. To those who have never grown 

 grapes, this may seem a good deal of labor, but when you come to know just 

 how to do it, you will find it but very little trouble, and the fruit produced will 

 be fine and abundant, and you will never regret it ; and remember this is part 

 of the price that nature requires us to pay for good fruit. 



This is only one of the many systems of training, but it is the one now 

 mostly followed at Vine Valley in our State, and which seems to require the 

 least skill and patience. And I have always noticed, among those growing for 

 home use, the best success where they most closely follow this system ; but 

 whatever system you adopt, be sure you do not let them overbear or grow so 

 rampant as to become only a mass of tangled unproductive canes. Eemember 

 one good healthy leaf is worth a dozen half grown. To produce the best results 

 in fruit, we must have the fullest development of healthy leaves. 



VARIETIES. 



The farmer don't need to care whether a vine belongs to the Labrusca, the 

 Cordifolia, the Vinifera, or any other family, so long as it gives him a bounti- 

 ful supply of good fruit for his family's use. He would also prefer a bushel 

 of fairly good fruit to a few clusters of exquisitely flavored exotics that can 

 only be grown in very limited quantities by the greatest care and patience. He 

 has the mouths of the youngsters to fill, and when once they have tasted, their 

 demand is not so much the fine quality as the large quantity. I do not wish to 

 say aught against quality, but quality is not everything. What's the good of 

 quality without grapes? and every grape that is put out and recommended for 

 quality alone will disappoint the people. Witness the hundreds of varieties 

 that have been put upon the market with great pomp and high sounding names 

 whose chief recommendation was quality, and not one has outlived its infancy. 

 For farmer's use especially, we want certainty. If he plants a grape vine he 

 wishes to grow grapes, and he has a right to demand them, taking the older 

 varieties that are well known. Luckily we have some that are fairly good in 

 quality and at the same time have the certainty of bearing large and regular 

 crops of fruit. 



The first thing to be looked at in selecting a vine is its leaves. These are 

 more important than all else combined. It is the leaves that take the crude 

 material furnished by the roots, and digesting it and holding it up to the 

 influence of sun and air, in their fine network of veins, prepares food for the 

 nourishment and growth of every part of the vine, as well the roots and stems 

 as the beautiful, well ripened, melting fruit. So really the leaf is mother of 

 the whole plant, and we want this strong, healthy and able to withstand the 



