Fruit Brevities. 



437 



four feet long. ""' Another portion is trained upon a common grape 

 trellis of three wires, the canes being tied to the wires the spring 

 of the bearing year by means of wool twine. In the third portion 

 the vines lie upon a flat rack standing 18 inches above the ground, 

 and made of light slats laid crosswise the row and resting upon 

 bents at the sides. There has 

 been no gain in productive- 

 ness or earliness upon the 

 trellised or racked plants ; the 

 only advantages have come 

 from the greater ease of 

 picking and cultivating and 

 the less amount of room 

 occupied. And these advan- 

 tages are considerable, and 

 seem to me to warrant the 

 adoption of some simple 

 trellis, preferably a wire 

 trellis, in garden culture. 

 Whether it would pay in 

 field or market culture is a 

 question which must be de- 

 termined by the growler him- 

 self. The labor of tying 

 the canes to the wires is 

 somewhat onerous, but it is 

 needed only once in the sea- 

 son. This training does not 

 interfere with covering for 

 winter protection, for the 

 young or growing canes are 

 allowed to lie upon the 

 ground and are tied up the 

 following spring. If the 

 canes interfere with cultiva 

 tion while growing they can 

 be placed lengthwise the row 

 with a rake or they can be thrown over the lowest wire. After the 









1/ 



^(\'ii 





133, — Dewberries on a wire screen. 



