426 AMERICAN GEAPE TRAINING 



other end resting on the ground against a two -foot peg of 

 about the same size as the end post. 



"The wires (two wires in the Chautauqua trellis) should 

 be strung on the windward side of the post ; that is, on the 

 side from which the prevailing winds come. This is very 

 important when the wind is blowing at thirty to forty miles 

 an hour, and the vines have sails of many square feet of 

 foliage, and perhaps three and four tons of fruit per acre. 

 The staples should be of the same gauge of wire as that 

 used in barbed wire fences, but about one-half inch longer, 

 unless the grape posts should be of hard wood like locust, 

 then fence staples will be long enough. The bottom trellis 

 wire is usually placed from twenty -eight to thirty -two 

 inches from the ground. Owing to the arm system of 

 pruning in the Chautauqua grape belt, the height of the 

 lower, trellis wire is permanent. The upper trellis wire is, 

 in many instances, raised as the vineyard comes to ma- 

 turity. The first year of fruiting, it may not be more than 

 twenty-four inches above the lower wire, and year by year 

 be raised to thirty and thirty-two inches. It is not ad- 

 visable to go more than thirty -six inches apart without 

 putting in a middle or third wire. Each spring many of the 

 posts will sag, and the upper wire will be slack, and many 

 of the braces will be out of place. All of these faults 

 should be corrected just before tying up the canes." 



TYING 



Probably the best material for tying the canes 

 and shoots to the trellis is raffia. This is a bast- 

 like material which comes in skeins, and which can 

 be bought of seedsmen and nurserymen for about 

 twenty cents a pound. A pound will suffice to tie 

 a quarter of an acre of upright training through- 

 out the season. Raffia is obtained from the strip- 



