Winter Meeting. 309 



The four bearing arms this year and the years following should be cut 

 back to seven or nine buds and all laterals cut away, leaving nothing to 

 bear grapes except these four arms. For you to expect a novice to prune 

 exactly as I do would be absurd. I should want him in the vineyard 

 with my pruning knife in his hand and cut the canes I dictate. I 

 usually cultivate the vineyard with an Acme harrow and a double- 

 shovel plow, never going very deep and keeping it about as clean as 

 corn. Since commencing this paper it seems to me it would be a good 

 plan to sow oats the last cultivation for a green carpet to set your bas- 

 kets of grapes on while picking, and to serve as a ground covering dur- 

 ing the winter. In regard to picking: Never commence to pick when 

 they first color, as they taste then a little like the Champion which 

 breaks down the grape trade, but let them hang till ripe to create a 

 demand instead of glutting a market. Cut with a pair of scissors and 

 remove all imperfect grapes from the cluster and pick the finest clus- 

 ters first, handling carefully to retain the bloom and put your brand 

 on each package of fancy grapes and use five and ten pound Climax 

 baskets or some fancy package. If for a home market always heap 

 up the basket, it looks so much better and never put the best on top 

 and the poorest in the bottom, thus gain a reputation for producing the 

 best fruit on the market. Handle what few are left, that are not 

 fancy with almost the same care you do the choice grapes, but do not 

 brand them. As to varieties I do not feel like advising. If I was 

 only going to plant one variety of black it would be the Worden. If 

 only one variety of red it would be the Brighton. If only one variety 

 of white it would be the Niagara. But I must confess that I feel like 

 ]>ounding the Champion over the head every time an opportunity per- 

 mits.- We used to have some weak, narrow-minded horticulturists 

 who recommended that variety. But I think they have all left civil- 

 ization and gone to the Phillipines to grow up with the country. I 

 once heard a horticulturist (who thinks he is quite high on the lad- 

 der) say at a horticultural meeting that he did not like the Champion 

 himself but grew it because it brought him the dollars. This man 

 loves the almighty dollar better than lie does his fellow man. The 

 principle to live and let live is a good one, but the man who kills his 

 friend and neighbor by selling him Champion grapes does not possess 



