STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 47 



erallv in Europe. It is simply to train up the vine the lust or second 

 year to a stake. Stop it the same season by pinchuig it oft' at three to 

 five feet high early enough in the season for the upper buds to make 

 shoots; cut these in, to one bud; lay the vine down in the foil and cover 

 it with earth; take it up and tie to the stake the next spring; as it starts 

 rub oft' all the shoots except two or three in the middle of the cane, and 

 four or five at the top; those left near the middle of the cane may be al- 

 lowed to bear a few bunches of fruit, but should be pinched back several 

 times during the summer, and in the fall cut entirely oft; let the shoots 

 at the top grow as they will during the summer; in the fall cut half of 

 them back to one bud. and lea\e the rest with from three to ten buds, 

 according to the strength of the vine. These last will the next year give 

 a fine crop of fruit without any summer pruning or other interference, 

 though for extra fine fruit they should ha\-e their shoots pinched back as 

 in other systems. Splendid canes will be produced from those cut back 

 to one bud for the next year's fruiting. In the fall cut back the canes 

 that have borne fruit, and properly shorten in the others; bend over and 

 cover, and so on from year to year. While the vines are young the stakes 

 should be set some distance from them, and the vines bent abruptly 

 towards them and tied. This will cause them to grow obliquely, so that 

 they will be less endangered by breaking when laying them dowji. We 

 get, in this system, some length of trunk, a tree-formed vine of great 

 beauty and weeping habit, with the fruit growing in the shade of the 

 leaves ; the leaves fully exposed to light ; a chance to plow both ways ; a 

 very simple and easy motle of training, and can have more vines to the 

 acre and have them do \vell than b}^ any other way. These vines even- 

 tually, if not too high, become strong enough to sustain themselves with- 

 out stakes, like the tree grapes of California. 



Training on Ti'ces. — When all things were created, our native 

 grapes were given into marriage to the trees of our forests. To them 

 they were to cling for support and protection. Man, in his self-conceit, 

 thinks himself more wise than He who made him, and is trying to bring 

 about a regular Indiana divorce between these loving parties. I say an 

 Indiana divorce for the reason that the weaker and better halves' wishes 

 are not consulted in the matter at all. The oak can live without the vine, 

 but the vine, being dependent, languishes and grows feeble when de- 

 prived of its natural supporter and protector. I fear you will be disposed 

 to look upon this as merely idle theory. It is not so, and desen'cs more 

 interest than growers are likely to give it. Try the simple experiment of 

 growing a vine on a scanty trellis; allow one shoot to escape into a tree 

 congenial to it, and let it have its own sweet will. The result will create 

 astonisliment. Instead of a cane three to four feet long, with only a few 

 joints of ripened wood, as you will find on the trellis, the cane in the tree 

 will show you, perhaps, tiventy-five feet of thoroughly developed and 

 matured wood. The resulting crop of fruit will, accidents left out, show 

 a like preponderance in favor of the cane in the tree. One accident that 

 would destroy the result of the fruiting part of the experiment, would be 

 steady, windy weather during the period of blooming, by blowing awa} 



