Summer Meeting. 51 



planted mv vines 6x7 feet, i. e., distance in the rows six feet and the rows 

 seven feet apart, but to-day I know that 7x8 feet would have been bet- 

 ter. The posts are eighteen feet apart, three vines between them, and 

 three number 12 galvanized wires stretched to them, two feet, three and 

 a half feet and five feet from the ground. In future I shall use no wire 

 finer than number 10. ISTever would I tie the vines in a bunch to single 

 posts. I believe the grapes feel uncomfortable, like a lady laced too 

 tightly. Beg your pardon. Personally I have no objection that the 

 dear ladies are beautiful and dress to be beautiful, but health should 

 never be sacrificed to obtain beauty, real or imaginary. 



Prof. Munson's method of two parallel wires on arms extending 

 from the post I do not believe to be very practical and economical in an 

 extensive vineyard. The strictly horizontal two-arm system has its 

 drawbacks. Often you will be compelled to use bearing vines which 

 should otherwise be discarded; besides, the young shoots require too 

 much time for tying up. 



The simplest, most natural and most practical method for trimming 

 is, to my belief, the fan-shape on two arms starting about one foot from 

 the ground, giving us more liberty in selecting the best bearing vines, 

 four or five, with about thirty eyes in all, besides leaving a short spur of 

 two eyes on each arm to produce fine bearing vines for the next year. 



Apropos ! do you have the best, most practical and serviceable prun- 

 ing-shear to be gotten for the money ? It is the cheapest in the course 

 of time for the great amount of labor it "svill perfonn in a. skillful hand. 

 Mine are imported from Germany, a precious tool found at last, and I 

 have discarded all of American fabric, being only imitations having some 

 flaw or fault. 



How do I cultivate my vineyard ? Surely, in trying to do the best 

 work in the simplest manner. After the trimming of vines is finished 

 and tied securely with willows to the wires in April or early May the 

 rows are plowed off with an eight-inch one-horse plow, leaving a narrow 

 ridge only seven to eight inches wide between the hills, which is hoed 

 and raked out by hand with a common potato-hoe. After a week the 

 ground between the rows is either cultivated with a one-horse cultivator 

 or harrowed with a V-shaped stump harrow, doing the most effective 

 work, and a strong horse is able to perform it. 



