HA.RDY GRAPES. 239 



second years of fruiting, when there was not sufficient 

 foliage to impede the light) it has been nearly a failure. 



There is much misconception as to what should be the 

 age of a grape-vine when planted. Nine-tenths of our 

 amateur customers ask for vines three or four years old. 

 If a vine of that age could be properly lifted with every 

 root unbroken, then there might be some advantage in 

 its greater strength ; but as vines are usually grown in 

 the nurseries closely together, with the roots all inter- 

 laced, large plants can rarely be got with roots enough 

 to support the vine and maintain its vigor after trans- 

 planting. As a rule, it is better to plant one or two- 

 year-old vines, which can usually be bought at half the 

 price of those of three or four years old, and which, in 

 all probability, will give a crop quite as soon as the large 

 ones, if not sooner. 



The manner of planting the vine is similar to that 

 of any other tree or shrub. The ground must be thor- 

 oughly broken up, not in a mere hole only sufficient to 

 hold the roots, but, if a regular border has not been 

 made, the place where each vine is to be planted should 

 not be less than three feet in diameter (and if double 

 that, all the better), and of a depth of not less than a 

 foot. On receiving the vine from the nursery, it may con- 

 sist of one or more shoots, but on planting it should be 

 cut back to only two or three eyes or buds. On starting 

 to grow, all of these buds or eyes should bo rubbed off 

 except one, selecting the strongest. Train this shoot 

 perpendicularly to a stake the first year of its growth. 

 The next fall, w^hen the leaves drop, cut it back to nine 

 or ten inches from the ground. When the vine starts 

 the next spring, rub off all eyes or buds except two, 

 which during the season will form two canes, as in figure 

 73. These, if they are canes half an inch in diameter, 

 are in the fall to be pruned to three or four feet long, 

 and the following spring trained horizontally, one to 



