194 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Planting: and Care of Grapes. 



Abner Taylor, Harrlsonville, Mo. 



Seeing that the Society have got my name down for a paper on 

 pruning and training the grape, I think the Society should have chosen 

 somebody better prepared for the important subject. I do not feel 

 capable of doing the subjecc justice, but if I can be of any benefit to 

 my fellow-man in any way, then I am under obligations to do what I 

 can for their benefit. 



I have been working with the grape in a small way for eight years. 

 I have read a great deal on the management of the vine, but was not 

 satisfied in the different modes of pruning. It seemed to me that there 

 was something wrong. Then I got the State Horticultural report for 

 1891 and read H. Clagett's experience in training and pruning the vine, 

 and, believing that he was nearer right than any that I had previously 

 studied, I concluded to give it a fair trial, for I was very much inter- 

 ested, as I am preparing to set nine acres of grapes as fast as I can 

 get the land prepared. So I took 10 vines the past spring to experi- 

 ment with, nine of them Concords and one of another variety. First I 

 selected from two to four good thrifty shoots of last year's growth, cut 

 them off about five to six feet from the starting point on the old wood ; 

 then I pruned all the old wood off, outside of those that I had left 

 for fruiting; then took those new shoots and bent them over the sec- 

 ond wire and tied the end down to the bottom wire, and when the 

 young shoots made their appearance and the bloom buds started to 

 grow I pinched off the young shoot one leaf outside the last bloom 

 bud, and kept all buds pinched off as they appeared, until the first 

 of July; then I stopped the pinching. I have raised from two to four 

 new canes from each vine for fruiting next year, and when they 

 were about six feet long I pinched out the terminal bud; also 

 pinched off all laterals except the two last, which I let grow 18 inches 

 or two feet; then pinched off the ends. Again this gives me fine 

 thrifty canes for fruiting next year. 



'Now for the results of the experiment: more bunches of grapes 

 and four times as large as others of the same variety pruned the same 

 day, but under the ordinary method of pruning. I will train all my 

 vines on this method next year and see how the method holds out. 



Now I have some questions to ask of experimental grape-growers. 

 Is there any better wine-grape than the Cynthiana ? If so, what is it, 

 and where can they be bought, and at what price per 500 or 1000? I 



