MIDSUMMER PAPERS. 85 



ceased its first season's growth and boforc it coniinenccs the second is the time 

 to begin to prune. As tlic object is fruit and this as soon as possible, we must 

 work with tliis in view. The bud from which tlie vine was grown possessed 

 within itself the rudiments of three or four clusters of grapes, and had it 

 remained upon the parent vine the sap from the parent root would have devel- 

 oped the fruit, but severed it had vigor sufficient to sustain its own life, but 

 none for the immediate ju'opagation of its kind. To accomplish this the 

 energies of the young vine must be conserved for a year or two. To allow all 

 the buds which the young vine possesses to grow would fritter away its strength 

 and produce a multitude of little buds of no fruit-bearing value. Wo, there- 

 fore, on some fine winter's day, cut away all the wood save that which bears 

 the three lower buds, and then in May, when these have commenced to grow, 

 quietly pinch off two of those, leaving only the strongest one. The sap from 

 all the roots is thus concentrated in the growth of one bud, and the result is 

 a strong, vigorous shoot whose buds frequently attain sufficient strength to 

 bear fruit the following season. But just here we have another problem to 

 solve of more immediate importance than fruit bearing. The grape vine is 

 not self supporting. In its wild state the young vine is fain to lean upon the 

 frail stem of the aspiring Kattleweed, and when this, brittle with decay, is blown 

 by the wintry wind against a Spice bush or Witch Ilazel, the vine accepts the 

 inevitable and clings to the new Hupport. But our vine is the creature of civi- 

 lization and clean culture, and in pruning we have to bear in mind the necessity 

 of its being supported. This is generally and at the same time most economi- 

 cally done with a wire trellis, and to prepare and adapt tiie vine for its support 

 is the object of the second year's pruning. At the winter pruning the strong 

 shoot which was the result of the second summer's growth sliould be cut back 

 to about two feet in height. In the following April, when it is certain that 

 the two upper buds are alive and vigorous, all below them should be rubbed off 

 and the summer's growth confined to the production of two strong canes from 

 the upper buds. If the season is favorable the result will be that all the buds 

 for several feet on this new growth will be fruit-producing buds. The winter's 

 pruning for the third year consists in shortening the two new shoots to the 

 desired length, which should be one-half the distance between the vines. 

 These two shoots whicli we have now obtained are to be the future branches 

 of the grape vine which we have been growing. We bend them in opposite 

 directions down to a horizontal wire and attach them in such a manner that 

 eacli arm will form an arch, with the center of the arm five or six inches 

 higher than either end. This is done to arrest the flow of sap -and cause all 

 the buds to start alike. Tliese buds produce the bearing canes and should not 

 be allowed nearer together than ten or twelve inches. Each of these canes 

 will produce three bunches of grapes, and an indefinite amount of growth of 

 vine beside. This has led to summer pruning, whicli consists of lopping off 

 the young growth after it has grown a few feet, with a view to forcing the sap 

 into maturing and enlarging the fruit. I wish to say a word upon this topic 

 before I close, but I will first finish the subject of winter pruning. We have 

 now got our vine into bearing and its annual pruning consists of cutting back 

 their bearing canes to their lowest bud. As a shoot grows about an inch before 

 it forms a bud, each pruning leaves the spur a little longer until in a few years 

 an unsightly mass of wood cumbers the arms of the vine. These can be cut 

 off near their base and a new cane allowed to grow from a dormant bud at 

 the base, but this growth will generally be too feeble to produce fruit before 

 the second year. This system of pruning is, I believe, the simplest and in 



