GRAPES. 97 



Another Member : T am seventy j^ears old and that is the 

 first time I ever heard of trimming a grape vine. 



Another Member : I don't seem to understand this. Can 

 you make a sort of a chart on the blackboard showing how 

 you trim Moore's Early? 



President Green : I am sorry Mr. Shaver didn't do that be- 

 fore for it is a fact that he has taken better than $700 worth 

 of grapes off of an acre and a half each year for the last two 

 years. 



Mr. Shaver : I am not very good at drawing but I guess 

 this will show what I mean : 



There are too many little limbs here (indicating) that will 

 produce. There are more than I want to produce the grapes, 

 so when I cut this limb (indicating) there will be no growth 

 of wood and no grapes on that, but this one next to it I will 

 leave the whole length if it don't go beyoud the point of 

 space I have. There wasn't so much growth in this stem 

 (indicating) so I cut clear back to here (indicating) and cut 

 off the old wood when possible so as to stop the growth again. 



A Member: About how many limbs would you leave on 

 the vine? 



Mr. Shaver : That depends on the age of the vine and its 

 thriftiness; on some vines I might take off half, others I 

 wouldn't take off so much, and on others a little more. In 

 California they put on a certain amount of water to control 

 the growth of wood, but we can't do that here, we have to use 

 other means. The strawberry is very serviceable because 

 I can raise a larger crop of strawberries in the vineyard 

 than in any other way; I had some few rows that I turned the 

 other way because I was afraid the rows would wash ! I had 

 a full crop of strawberries, while between the rows running 

 north and south the sun came in and they did not amount to 

 anything. 



Now I am planting this spring, and I set about 714 acres 

 of strawberries, peaches, and raspberries. I grow three crops, 

 I plant them all east and west and plant them on the south 



4 



