224 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



HOW TO PLANT. 



The vines should be planted in rows seven feet apart, and eight feet 

 apart in the row. After the ground is well prepared and rows staked off, 

 holes are dug about one and a half to two feet deep and three feet across. 

 These holes are partly filled up again with top soil, in such manner that 

 it forms a little hill in the center of the hole, then the roots of the vine 

 are spread around on this, care being taken to have the vine in the center. 

 After the vine is planted a stake should be driven beside it. During the 

 summer clean and thorough cultivation should be given. 



PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



In the fall or winter following the first season's growth, all shoots are 

 cut away except one, the strongest. This is cut back from two to four 

 buds. The next summer the strongest shoots should be tied to the stake; 

 the others should be cut away clean. The second winter cut away again 

 all shoots, leaving only one, the strongest. This is cut off at a height of 

 two feet above the ground more or less, according to its strength and size, 

 and tied to a stake or wire, if wires have been stretched. The best and 

 cheapest material for tieing the canes to the wires is the shoots of hte 

 golden willow. All shoots that issue within a foot to a foot and a half 

 of the ground, should be pinched off as they appear, in order to have 

 a single straight stem and the canes thus be kept a sufficient distance 

 above the ground. It is necessary to have the canes well up from the 

 ground in order that the air may circulate freely under neath, and this 

 also makes cultivation much easier. Of the shoots that come at the upper 

 end of the cane,* leave three or four. These may be fastened, as soon as 

 long enough, to the upper wire. They must not be checked in their growth. 

 During the third winter two of the strongest canes are cut back, leaving 

 four to seven buds on each, and tied to the upper wire, the other canes are 

 cut back to two buds, these are intended to make bearing canes for the 

 year after. If the vines are rather weak, .the canes should be pruned 

 shorter and tied to the lower wire. 



In the spring of the third year, after the vines have been plowed and 

 hoed, the young shoots will push out vigorously. Now come the most 

 important and delicate operations to be performed, in the pruning of the 

 vine. This is known as summer pruning, and is usually done with thumb 

 and finger. The work should be commenced when the young shoots are 

 about five or six inches long. One shoot of the spursf and one shoot at the 

 lower end of the canes must not be toucned, because they are wanted for 

 bearing canes next year, all the rest are pinched off at the ends, leaving 

 one leaf above the upper bunch. All the shoots that issue between the 

 spurs and canes, and also all that issue on the stem below, must be 

 rubbed off. Some buds occasionally produce two or three shoots; rub off 

 all but the strongest. Usually the grape will bear three bunches on each 

 shoot. Now suppose a vine was pruned to two canes with seven buds 



* A cane is a growth of the previous year. 



t A spur isi a short branch of the original stem, two or more years old. 



