576 HOW TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



canes to each spur, just twenty cuts with the pruning shears 

 are required to prune this vine. We allow two minutes to 

 each vine of this size, or thirty an hour. Cut away the cane 

 that has borne the previous season, and cut the other down 

 to throe or four buds. The vines are free from leaves. 

 niul the place to cut is easily discerned. It is the summer 

 pinching of the laterals, tendrils, and tops that requires the 

 most trouble, but this is exceedingly simple, as we have already 



pliown. 



In a mild climate, pruning can be done at any time between 

 the foil of the leaf and the starting of the sap ; in the Middle 

 State.-?, either in the fall or spring, and only in the extreme 

 Northern States must be delayed until February or March. 

 Neither is the life of the vine uncertain, unless abused. There 

 are many cases of vines on record that have borne for over 

 one hundred years, and some that have borne for upwards 

 of four hundred years. A selection of hardy varieties and 

 winter protection, while young and tender, will secure fine 

 crops of grapes, in our extreme Northern States, and nothing 

 but the utmost negligence will produce the death of the vine, 

 south of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Iowa. Excessive bear- 

 ing while young will so weaken the vine that it will be winter 

 killed, north of these boundaries, and winter protection is a 

 decided benefit south of them. A very simple method of pro- 

 tecting the vines, is to bend down the arms after the fall 

 pruning, and shovel on earth enough to hold them down, then 

 run the plow through and throw a furrow slice over them, 

 going through again, and covering any tliat the plow has failed 

 to cover. This is all work, but all crops require work, and 

 this one will pay more abundantly for every care than almost 

 any other. The time before the returns from actual sales of 

 grapes come in, is longer than for ordinary crops, but the salei 



