THE CANADIAN HOKTICULTURIST. 



115 



do not rob the vine of a quantity of 

 foliage it cannot spare (as the leaves 

 are the lungs of the plant and elevators 

 of the sap). You can do three times 

 the woi'k that you can perform a week 

 later, when the shoots have become 

 hai-dened and intertwined by their 

 tendi'ils. Remember that the knife 

 should have nothing to do with summer 

 pruning. Your thumb and finger 

 should perform all the work, and they 

 can do it easier if it is done early. 



2d. Perform it thoroughly and sys- 

 tematically. Select the shoots you 

 intend for bearing wood next year. 

 These are left unchecked ; but do not 

 leave more than you really need. 

 Remember that each part of the vine 

 should be thoroughly ventilated, and if 

 you crowd it too much, none of the 

 canes will ripen their wood as thoroughly 

 nor be as vigorous as when each has 

 room, air, and light. Having selected 

 these, commeiice at the bottom of the 

 vine rubbing otf all the superfluous 

 shoots, and all which appear weak or 

 imperfect. Then go over each arm or 

 part of the vine, pinching every fruit 

 beaiing branch al>ove the last bunch of 

 grapes, or if this should look weak or 

 imperfect, remove it and pinch back to 

 the first perfectly developed bunch. 

 Should the bud have pushed out two or 

 three shoots, it will generally be ad- 

 visable to leave the strongest, and re- 

 move the balance. Do not think that 

 you can do jjart of it a little later, but 

 be unsparing in taking away what you 

 intend to take this time. Destroy all 

 the caterpillars, and all thf; insects you 

 find feeding on the vines; the stefd-l)lue 

 beetle, who will eat into the buds ; but 

 protect the lady bug, mantis, and all 

 the friends of the vine. 



We come to the second stage of 

 summer pruning. After tlie fii'st 

 pinching, the dormant buds in the axils 

 of the leaves, on fruit bearing shoots, 

 will each push out a lateral shoot, oppo- 



site the young Ijunches. Our second 

 operation consists in pinching off these 

 laterals Imck to one leaf as soon as we 

 get hold of the shoot above the first 

 leaf, so that we get a young and vigor- 

 ous leaf additional, opposite to each 

 bunch of grapes. These serve as eleva- 

 tors of sap, and also as excellent pro- 

 tection and shade to the fruit. Remem- 

 ber our aim is not to rob the plant 

 of its foliage, but to make two leaves 

 grow where there was but one })efore, 

 and at a place where they are of more 

 benefit to the fruit. By our method, 

 our i-ows of vines have the appearance 

 of leafy walls, each bunch of the fruit 

 properly shaded, and yet each part of 

 the vine is properly ventilated. 



We come now to another part of 

 those accidental discoveries which have 

 proved of great use to us in the manage- 

 ment of the Concord, Herbemont, 

 Tayloi-, etc. In the summer of 1862, 

 when a piece of Concord, planted in 

 1801, was growing rapidly, a severe 

 hail storm cut up the young shoots, 

 completely defoliating them, and break- 

 ing the tender and succulent shoots 

 at a height of about two feet, The 

 vines were growing rapidly, and dor- 

 mant buds in the axils of the leaves 

 immediately pushed out laterals, which 

 made fair sized canes. In the following 

 fall, when we commenced to prune we 

 found from three to five of these strong 

 laterals on each cane, and accordingly 

 shortened them in from three to five 

 and six biids each. On the laterals we 

 raised as fine a ci'op of grapes as we 

 evei- saw — certainly much finer than 

 we had ever before i-aised on the strong 

 canes ; and we have since learned to 

 imitate hailstorms by pinching the 

 leaders of young shoots when they have 

 gi'own, say two feet, forcing out the 

 laterals and growing our fruit on the 

 latter, thus meeting with another illus- 

 tration of the old proverb : "It is an 

 ill wind that blows nobody any good," 



