320 Transactions of the 



TRAINING AND PRUNING GRAPE VINES. 



BY I. N. HOAO. 



There are many farmers who would plant vines and enter upon the 

 business of grape culture to a greater or less extent but from the fact 

 that they have obtained the idea that there is something very difficult 

 and hard to learn or comprehend in the management of the vineyard. 

 To such we would say, the best way to learn is to plant a few vines and 

 become interested. Then what now seems so difficult will by degrees 

 become simpler and easier. 



It is true there are many different opinions as to the best mode of 

 training and pruning vines with a view to obtain the best results. There 

 are also many different practices based upon these opinions. From these 

 differences of opinion and practice among professional viniculturists has 

 doubtless arisen. the prevailing idea above referred to as existing among 

 our farmers. 



With the grapevine, as with all other vines, trees, and plants, various 

 modes of treatment are required, depending on the soil and climate, as 

 also to some extent on the variety of grape and the purposes for which 

 it is to be produced. The principles and reasons involved in the adaptation 

 of crops, trees, and vines to soils and climates, and in the different modes 

 of treatment by different circumstances, constitute the practical science 

 of agriculture in its most general sense. To study and become familiar 

 with science is the interest and duty of every person who proposes to 

 follow agricultural pursuits as a means of livelihood. The performance 

 of those things which this science requires to be done at the proper 

 time and in a skillful manner, so as to produce desired results, consti- 

 tutes the art of agriculture in the same general sense. 



It is equally the interest and duty of every farmer to strive to become 

 proficient in the art as well as learned in the science of agriculture. To 

 accomplish these requires reading, thought, and practice combined. By 

 reading we learn the result of the experiences of others. By thought 

 and practice we apply the information thus obtained with intelligence 

 for the accomplishment of our own desired objects. In the training and 

 pruning and care of the vineyard science and art as above defined may be 

 and require to be constantly brought into practice; then the whole thing 

 becomes so simple that the operator wonders that he did not compre- 

 hend it before. 



LOW TRAINING. 



General experience in this State, where the atmosphere at night is so 

 dry and pure as to induce a low degree of temperature in the Summer 

 season as compared to that of the days, has proven that low training and 

 pruning is the best. The grapes being close to the ground feel the influ- 

 ence of the heat absorbed during the day by the earth and given out during 



