IIoiv shall wc -plant and prune our Vineyards ? 27 



HOW SHALL WE PLANT AND PRUNE OUR 

 VINEYARDS? 



By F. B. Shelve, RushviKe, N. Y. 



I READ the article by E. F. Underhill, in the November number of 

 your Magazine, with much interest, and beHeve it is calculated to do 

 good. It seems to me that we have been following, in part at least, 

 European methods of planting, pruning, and training quite long 

 enough, and should now begin to strike out for ourselves. Of course 

 there are certain general principles in vineyard culture which apply 

 everywhere ; but our native vine seems to share in some of our national 

 characteristics, and is crying for more room. 



I know it is difficult in horticulture, as in everything else, to get out 

 of the beaten track, and to unlearn that which we have learned amiss ; 

 and this difficulty is not lessened by the fact that Nature, with her con- 

 sei"vative powers, is always busy, ready to assist us whenever we take a 

 step in the right direction, and silently, but constantly, repairing dam- 

 ages when we blunder ; thus seeming to indorse error, and, to the care- 

 less observer, making of a lie the truth. Plants, like men, have a won- 

 derful power of resisting bad treatment, and this makes me hopeful of 

 the future in vineyard culture. The impression left upon the mind of 

 the reader of Mr. Underhill's article, that planting at such extreme dis- 

 tances and high training are the general practice at Naples, is, I think, 

 an erroneous one ; as the majority of vineyards there are planted at 

 the distances common at Hammondsport and in this locality, viz., 

 eight feet each way, or eight by ten. 



Some ten or twelve years since, three small vineyards of the Isabella 

 were planted in Vine Valley at a distance of fifteen feet each way, and 

 since they came into bearing have uniformly given good crops of supe- 

 rior fruit, the vines being entirely free from disease up to this time. 

 Four years ago, when the attention of vineyardists was directed to this 

 place, and planting commenced on a larger scale, that was thought an 

 unnecessary waste of ground, and eight by eight feet was the distance 

 generally chosen, except in a few instances, where more room was 



