172 REPORT 0¥ THE SECRETARY OF THE 



arms. Tlie remaining canes not being long enongh to take 

 arms for the two upper tiers, must be cnt back to within two 

 or three feet of the ground, and in order to produce a good 

 strong cane eight or ten feet long, only the upper bud on each 

 should be allowed to grow. To prune for the next season, the 

 canes for the lower courses having all grown strong, are to 

 be cut back to within four feet of their base, to be laid down 

 for arms, the left hand cane of No. 1 fastened to the post 

 opposite the second bar, the remaining two feet bent down to 

 meet the arm of No. 4. Of the single canes for the upper 

 courses, Nos. 3 and 7 are to be cut back to within five feet of 

 the ground, and Nos. 2, 6, and 10 within seven feet. The two 

 upper buds are to produce canes to be laid down for arms. It 

 will be seen that the arms of 7 and 8 do not fill up the trellis. 

 The deficiency of No. 8 may be supplied by laying down two 

 feet of the fruit-bearing cane at the end of that arm, and of 

 No. 7 by allowing No. 10 to produce four canes ; two of them 

 about two feet below the upper ones, to be cut back to two 

 feet and laid down on the third bar. 



No superfluous shoots should be permitted to grow on any 

 part of the vine. The laterals and bearing canes are to be 

 stopped, and the subsequent pruning done as before advised; 

 and if all the requirements have been complied with, we shall 

 have, when in full bearing, a trellis of vines bearing in round 

 numbers eight hundred bushels of grapes, — not 7i2ibbins, but 

 BUNCHES, — and it is claimed by those who ought to know, that 

 vines treated in this manner will continue in bearing fifty or 

 one hundred years, — a partial answer to the question, " Why 

 do you plant so many vines ?" A further answer is, that 

 vines are now comparatively cheap, and six will furnish a 

 supply of grapes of better quality and several years sooner, 

 than one will. Still further, I venture the assertion that there 

 is not in Michigan a grape vine ten years old (and I doubt if 

 five), covering an area of perpendicular trellis, ten feet square, 

 that bore a crop of fruit from bottom to top last season. 



