THE ORCHARDS AND GARDENS OF ORILLIA 



gentlemen are members of the Orillia 

 Horticultural Society, which was organ- 

 ized eleven years ago, and which, by 

 holding exhibitions, offering many and 

 liberal prizes and other means, has 

 done much to foster and promote fruit 

 growing in the district. Mr. C. L. Ste- 



phens has been Secretary of the Horti- 

 cultural Society since its formation : he 

 lives in a delightful place on the lake 

 (Couchiching) shore, to which a flying 

 visit was made by many of our mem- 

 bers on the occasion of the meet- 

 ing. 



Fig. 1297. — " The Hermitage," Home of Mb. C.L. Stephens, the Secretary. 



PRUNING GRAPE VINES. 



THE trouble with an unpruned vine 

 is that it bears too much fruit, and 

 this means poor quality. Let us 

 take a thrifty Concord vine to 

 illustrate this matter. At the end of 

 the season such a vine, in good soil, 

 kept well tilled, should have somewhere 

 near to 300 fruit buds on the new 

 growth of the past season. Now, a 

 good Concord vine should bear about 

 twenty pounds of first-class fruit each 

 season ; if it does this steadily year after 

 year no more should be expected. To 

 bear that amount of fruit, not more than 

 fifty buds are required. But as we have 

 seen our vine has about six times that 

 number, hence many in excess of the 



need. Leave the vine untrimmed and 

 the 300 buds will overbear and the yield 

 will be very inferior. Prune to reduce 

 the number of buds to fifty and a good 

 crop of fruit may be expected. That is 

 the simple proposition needed for guid- 

 ing your pruning knife. Cut away, 

 therefore, enough of the young canes to 

 bring the buds down to the right num- 

 ber. A good rule with Concords is to 

 remove all the canes but five, and cut 

 these back to nine or ten buds each. 

 The Delaware class should have even 

 less. Prune and tie up so as to have a 

 good distribution over the trellis. The 

 pruning should not be deferred beyond 

 this month if it can be helped. 



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