400 AMERICAN GRAPE TRAINING 



ject of grape pruning and training, and that none 

 of our books portray the methods which are most 

 largely practised in the large grape regions of the 

 east. My only recourse, therefore, was to put my 

 own notes into shape for print, and this I have 

 now done. And inasmuch as all grape- growers 

 are students, I hope that the simple account will 

 find a use beyond the class-room. 



"This lack of adequate accounts of grape train- 

 ing at first astonished me, but is not strange after 

 all. It must be remembered that the cultivation 

 of the native grape is of very recent origin. 

 There are many men who can remember its begin- 

 ning in a commercial way. It seldom occurs to 

 the younger generation, which is familiar with the 

 great vineyards in many states, that the Concord 

 is yet scarcely forty years old, and that all grape- 

 growing in eastern America is yet in an experi- 

 mental stage. Progress has been so rapid in 

 recent years that the new methods outstrip the 

 books. The old horizontal arm spur system, 

 which is still the chief method in the books, has 

 evolved itself into a high renewal training, which 

 is widely used, but which has not found its way 

 into the manuals. The Kniffin type has outgrown 

 its long period of incubation, and is now taking 

 an assured place in vineyard management. So 

 two great types, opposed in method, are now con- 

 tending for supremacy, and they will probably 

 form the basis of all future developments. This 



