568 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



be a bother when wires have to be restretched. One or two canes 

 can be brought up from the ground, tied to the bottom wire with 

 twine, and to the top wire of the trellis with No. 20 soft wire. 



Some tie to the bottom wire only the first year, but the practice 

 does not commend itself to me, because it is apt to give a lot of dirty 

 grapes. The second year of fruiting more canes are brought up from 

 the neighborhood of the first wire. In thrifty vineyards four and 

 even five canes are sometimes used the second year, but I think three 

 or at most four would be better. The natural tendency of fruit rais- 

 ers is to overcrop — particularly is this the case with grapes, and 

 too much caution cannot be exercised in the matter. These canes 

 are tied in a fan shape, if the fan system of tying is used. Now 

 while this and the arm system is generally used in our vineyards, 

 quite a few are believers in the Kniffen system, in which as usually 

 practiced with us two canes are carried to the top wire, over and 

 then tied down. Another modification is to carry two canes to the 

 bottom wire and two to the top wire, and tie at right angles to the 

 main vine. 



The single post or stake system, while it has much to recom- 

 mend itself to those who grow for home use, is almost unknown in 

 the Lake Erie belt. Along the Rhine the vineyards are all laid out 

 on this single post system. 



In the arm system, the arms are carried along the first wire at 

 right angles to the main vine, and laterals are tied that come from 

 these arms to the top wire for the bearing wood for the next sea- 

 son. This system does away to a great extent with the tying with 

 twine to the lower wire, for after a few years, the arms become 

 quite a permanent fixture, and are only removed when injured, or it 

 becomes necessary to renew them. Now while there are other sys- 

 tems of training the grape, and zealous exponents of them for the 

 commercial grower, those mentioned pretty well cover the sub- 

 ject. 



Summer pruning is no longer practiced in our vineyards, but we 

 do some tying of laterals that get in the way of the cultivator. Cul- 

 tivation should be thorough, at least five, and better, eight times. 

 The first tool used after the brush is removed and the vineyard tied 

 is the horse hoe. Of these there are several makes. The Morgan 

 now made by the Syracuse Plow Co.; the Buckeye, made by P. P. 

 Mast, Springfield, O., and there are some other candidates for public 

 favor. 



In laying by the vineyard the previous year, we prefer to leave it 

 slightly ridged under the wires. The horse hoe is used to remove 

 this ridge, and any fugitive weeds or grass that has strayed in. The 

 horse hoe does not count as a cultivation. Its use is immediately 

 followed by plowing the vineyard with the gang plow, using three 

 or four plows, and plowing to the depth of about three inches. Some 

 plow twice during the season, but most of the growers only once, 

 doing the balance of the work with the lever harrow and a horse 

 cultivator which has disc wheels to guide the tools in the vineyard. 



Before the vines are laid by, we turn a light furrow upon them. 

 This covers all exposed roots and leaves us the ridge I spoke of for 

 the horse hoe to remove the next season. The furrow \s turned with 



