PRUNING GRAPES. 



177 



should be fostered from the first. No summer pruning is required by the 

 currant and gooseberry, so all the season's pruning can be done in spring 

 before the growth starts. Both the currant and the gooseberry produce 

 their finest fruit on the young wood, but the one-year-old canes are never 

 as productive as the two- and three-year-old canes. Most of the fruit is 

 produced on the base of one-year-old laterals, or else on fruit spurs. Since 

 the fruiting habits of the currant and gooseberry are so near alike, the 

 system of pruning the two is the same. 



The pruning of currants and gooseberries consists of five operations: 

 First, remove all wood of four years or over. Second, remove all one- 

 year-old canes but two or three. Third, heading in of the remaining 

 one-year-old canes. These should be pruned not over 18 inches in height. 

 This causes them to produce the fruit-bearing wood near the plant, and 

 thus the canes are not so top-heavy when fruiting, and it also favors the 

 production of fruit spurs. Fourth, heading in young laterals on two- and 

 three-year-old canes. This should not be done unless they are making a 

 vigorous gro^wth — a growth of 8 or 10 inches should be headed back 2 or 3 

 inches. Fifth, heading in all drooping branches in such manner as to 

 produce an upright growth. 



When setting any of the bush fruits the top should, of course, be 

 pruned to correspond to the root-pruning the plant receives in trans- 

 planting. — A. T. Keithley, in Fruitman and Gardener. 



PRUNING GRAPES. 

 C. G. Marshall. 



The pruning of grapes is probably neglected more than any other fruit 

 commonly grown on the Nebraska farms. The grape is a fruit that is 

 easily grown in a large part of the state and is found in almost every 

 fruit garden. It is grown readily on a variety of soils, is a late bloomer, 

 almost always escaping late frosts, and a prolific bearer when properly 



.nS?SS^i!&2^t^?^^^'^^^^^®^ 



Fig. 1. — Permanent stem and 

 arms. Beginning of third year. 



cultivated and pruned. It responds very readily to the pruning knife, 

 more so than almost any other fruit grown, yet it is one of the most neg- 



