272 ANNUAL REPORT. 



trainer, and the proper thing to do was to seek to throw the strength 

 of the vines in the fruit buds and develop the fruit. 



Mr. Pearce here exhibited some vines to illustrate what he had said, 

 to show the different kinds of buds, etc. Buds are divided into four 

 classes: fruit buds, wood buds, forcing and foliage buds. A fruit- 

 bud is a perfect bud ; it is perfectly round at the base, and a little 

 above it bulges out in the shape of a hay-stack. The forcing bud is 

 inclined to be flat, but little inclined to be peaked. The wood bud is 

 a long, peaked, sharp bud; there is the distinction. Now, in pinching 

 your vines back, let the laterals remain, don't destroy them, if you do, 

 you destroy the fruit buds. You want to develop the fruit buds. 

 That is what you need for the next year. 



Mr. Kellogg. Does he claim there are no fruit buds on the main 

 cane? 



Mr. Pearce. Oh, no; but we pinch the laterals you know to estab- 

 lish fruit buds on the cane, although we often see them on the laterals. 

 In trimming our vineyard this season the laterals were entirely 

 destroyed. 



Mr. Harris. Mr. President, I think there should be no cultivation 

 in the vineyard after about the 10th of August. All pinching should 

 be suspended as early in the season as that. Any pinching later than 

 that I find is injurious. Any great amount of foliage that you remove 

 after the growth has commenced is damaging, because it weakens the 

 vitality of the vines, and therefore all pruning should be done in the 

 pinching back of the vines, and that too as soon as the bunch is well 

 formed. When the ends of the vine are pinched back, the sap im- 

 mediately goes to forming the buds below, and developing the fruit 

 buds that are necessary. Unless the laterals and sprouts from the 

 bottom are allowed to grow too much, the vine will produce just about 

 so many fruit buds. One of the greatest objects of pinching back is 

 to have those fruit buds down at the base of the vine where you can 

 control them, instead of out in the trellis. Any man will notice, 

 that has had experience, that the finest bunches are on the lowest bar 

 of the trellis. 



Mr. Sias. I don't wish to discuss this matter. I have thought there 

 might be some new beginners that might possibly be discouraged, or 

 confused by hearing so much about different buds and pinching, and 

 all that sort of thing. It seems there is a wide range between these 

 two papers. I would say, in the first place, these two parties that 

 wrote these papers are among the most successful grape growers in. 



