STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 413- 



or table by informing 3'ourselves concerning the scientific culture of 

 the grape vine; when you do that, books become secondary, mind 

 primary. 



When at Minnetonka, the other day, the complaint was universal : 

 "We can't get fruit eyes, especially in the Concords." You all know 

 the small terminal bud which puts forth in spring; every eye or bud. 

 of the grape is of the nature of that terminal bud. The spaces between 

 buds are called intern odes; the spot where the bud appears is called a 

 node. A small protuberance appears, with a sharp end; that, if you 

 will watch it for awhile, will give you the form of the wood-bud of 

 the grape. So long as a rapid growth continues, no formation takes 

 place except that of the wood-bud. If a too long growth is permitted} 

 so many buds form, that nature is unable to modify or change by 

 storing up the nutriment in the plant, or in that bud, to make it a 

 fruited bud; so that, upon young vines, growers do not see fruit eyes 

 when they are six or seven feet above ground; and why? Because of 

 the rapid growth. 



Buds of the grape may be divided into three classes: the wood-bud, 

 the forcing fruit-bud, and the fruit-bud proper. Once know the dis- 

 tinction between these, and the pruning of the grape becomes a matter 

 merely of the counting of the fruit-buds which you wish to have remain 

 upon the plant. 



Now, how is this change effected in practical grape growing? A bud 

 appears at the node; that bud pushes; another bud appears in the 

 axle of the leaf. A slight protuberance forms there, a leaf follows, 

 and a wood-bud forms right in its stalk at the axle of the cane; that 

 is where the bud forms which is always a wood-bud. If you allow 

 nature to assume its sway, thousands of buds will form in a year, and 

 as nature only wishes to perpetuate its species, the fruit-bud will form 

 at indefinite places, so that in pruning you haye to follow nature. 

 When your vine makes a sufficient growth, you can check it without 

 forcing this bud which forms in the axle, simply forcing the bud into 

 a lateral, and a bud forms underneath. If you pinch it too close this 

 bud will again break, and then you have lost from a month to six weeks 

 in the formation of your fruit-bud; continue that process the summer 

 through, and you have no fruit-buds at all. If, however, you pinch 

 the end and force a lateral, your bud remains. Now allow this lateral 

 to grow and extend in length; pinch it there again, and a bud forms 

 underneath each of these leaves, which in process of time changes by 

 becoming larger at the base, more round and less pointed. After 



