HOW I GROW GRAPES. 32/ 



of the ordinary grape wire (No. 12 annealed), and your trellis is 

 done." 



"Don't some people use less?" 



■'Yes, some people use fewer posts, and also fewer wires, but I 

 don't like the plan." 



"How shall I place the wares?" 



"Place your first wire eighteen inches above the ground, and your 

 second eight inches above the first. Place your fourth wire at the 

 top of the posts and divide the remaining space with the third wire. 



"I don't need to go into all the minutia of pruning, training, re- 

 moving laterals and all that. You will want some good small grape 

 book or pamphlet for that and, perhaps, a little instruction and advice 

 from some grape grower." 



"Well, now, about winter covering?" 



"After fall pruning and before dropping the vines for cover- 

 ing, go along with a hoe and dig a small trench about three inches 

 deep under each vine ; then drop the vine into the trench and fasten 

 it down with some small, sharpened stakes, or a few shovelfuls of 

 earth, and the vine is ready for covering. 



"Plow^ rather shallow or cultivate deeply all the space between 

 the rows, and with long handled, round pointed, clean, bright shov- 

 els. Cover the vines well, for winter protection. 



"And now a special word of caution : Don't take the earth away 

 from the roots of your vines to cover with. Remember that the 

 roots need more cover and protection than the vines do. People 

 often kill their vines, or at least many of the buds, by removing the 

 earth from over the roots, and then the next spring they generously 

 give the winter all the credit for killing or injuring their vines. 



"After covering the vines, cultivate well all the spaces between 

 the rows. This cultivating is a great protection against freezing; 

 and for your small vineyard I am much inclined to think that it 

 would pay you well to cover all the spaces, vines and all. with three 

 or four inches of straw or, better still, with hay. And now you are 

 ready for winter." 



Mr. J. W. Murray : I cannot lay too much stress upon this pro- 

 tection of the roots of the vines. Right here I want to correct a 

 false report which went out from Minnetonka about a half dozen 

 years ago. It went out that the vines were very badly injured by 

 winter-killing. That report has never been corrected. That win- 

 ter that hundreds of vines were killed was one of the moistest I 

 have ever seen in Minnesota. I left out hundreds of vines on the 

 trellis that were never pruned or laid down. Those vines went 

 through the winter almost as well as those that were laid down and 

 covered deeply and thoroughly. Within a short distance of the 

 village was a little vinevard of about a thousand vines. The vines 

 were not pruned or laid down, but they remained on the trellis all 

 winter, but out of that thousand there were not more than twenty 

 vines killed. The next year they bore a tremendous crop. I pre- 

 sume the vineyard overbore, and I doubt whether it has been worth 

 much since. Now why were they not killed ? 



The summer before had been one of the driest in the history 

 of Minnesota, and I have been here for forty-five years. You could 



