HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 373 



the base by piaching the end bud. Check all laterals in the same 

 way after one leaf has formed until the first of August, then let 

 them alone until the wood has ripened, and the leaves have 

 fallen. In Xovember the fall pruning should be done by cutting 

 all laterals and shortening the stronger cane to about four feet, 

 and the reserve cane to two buds. Two or three bunches of 

 fruit may be ripened this year. Always lay down and cover 

 with earth as previously described for winter protection. 



During the third season follow the same directions as pre- 

 viously given for taking up, tying to stakes, plowing, clean cul- 

 tivation, and covering. In pruning carry the leaders forward to 

 about double their prev^ious length; remove all feeble or second- 

 ary sprouts as soon as they start and j)inch laterals freely but 

 never cut away the foliage or full grown leaves; much injury is 

 often done in this way and it should not be tolerated; pinching 

 the end bud is the true way for summer pruning. Yet no arbi- 

 trary rule can be given, for no two vines and no two varieties are 

 alike ingrowth and needed requireraeats, so the good judgment 

 of the grower with some general suggestions will be the best 

 guide from this time on. One general rule should apply; when 

 the trellis is covered with vines the fall trimming should leave 

 nothing but fruit buds, and these well distributed aloug the 

 vines, and only in such quantities as the age and vigor of the root 

 will bear; for the form of trellis to be covered, the ideal vine 

 to be grown, and the variety of grape under cultivation, and its 

 liability to disease, all have an important influence on the treat- 

 ment required. Always have an ideal vineyard in mind and 

 keep the vines as perfect as possible; this may be done by per- 

 mitting the strong and vigorous vines to ripen a full crop of 

 fruit, while the vigor of the weaker ones is increased to thinning 

 to a few perfect bunches. Kever permit the vine to overbear; it 

 will impair its vitality, retard its growth and damage the suc- 

 ceeding crop, and the grower should be prudent in limiting its 

 productive capacity. The formation of seed is the most exhaus- 

 tive function of plant life, so a few large, compact, well-formed 

 bunches, weighing ten or twenty pounds, are much less injurious 

 to the vine than the same amount in small, inferior fruit. 



During the summer and fall of the third year or in early spring 

 of the fourth as most convenient, the holes may be dug, posts set 

 and trellises built, and here we must decide definitely what form 

 will best suit our wants, but for me I would use none other than 

 the flat horizontal trellis, four feet wide and five feet above the 



