54 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



soil you might not get it as mellow. They go along on their 

 hands and knees and stick the cuttings in about three or four 

 inches apart. There are stakes stuck on a line a quarter of a 

 mile long, and each man has a certain amount of work to do. 

 The cuttings are put in clear to the top bud, and the best of 

 cultivation is given the entire season. They get a stand of 

 seventy -five to eighty per cent., and fifty per cent, would be 

 an average number of vines. If you 'are able to get the soil 

 loose enough to push the bud down, it ought to be put in on a 

 slant; and if you are not able to stick them in, why plant them 

 with a dibble, 



Mr. Elliot: Do you ever firm the ground around the cuttings? 



Prof. Hansen: Just stick them in, and this loose, mellow 

 earth will settle just as much as it should. By all means put 

 the cuttings in that way, if you do have to put in extra work 

 to get the soil mellow. 



Mr. Brackett: Don't you put the cuttings in upside down 

 in the fall? 



Prof. Hansen: Oh, yes; the idea is not to get the buds 

 started too soon. 



Mr. Harris: Sometimes when the ground is ready and we 

 are ready to put them out, they are not calloused enough. In 

 such a case we take a hotbed sash and fix them over; we put a 

 hotbed sash over them a week or ten days, which hastens the 

 callousing. Where the ground is not mellow enough to stick 

 the cuttings, we have a boy with us to hand them out and we 

 use a broom handle to make holes for them. If the roots have 

 really started, I open a ditch with the spade and put them in 

 carefully, and they will not be very seriously injured. 



QUESTION. 



"What system of training grape vines will produce the best 

 results for a long term of years?" 



Mr. A. W. Latham: I do not know that I have had experi- 

 ence enough to answer that question. The best system of 

 pruning is that which gives you the most fruit for a long time. 

 Some varieties will fruit by close pruning, and others, like the 

 Moores Early, require a long cane. You can keep the vine 

 in much better shape with short-spur pruning, but where it is 

 necessary to prune long in order to get fruit, you simply have 

 to do that or go without fruit. Usually, the long pruning of a 

 vine puts it into bad shape and makes it more difficult to lay 

 down. All these things are to be considered. The first thing 



