286 PRUNING. 



plant must depend upon the soil, variety, and mode of 

 training, separately and collectively. Nearly all varieties 

 have a tendency to make more wood in light, sandy, grav- 

 elly, or loamy soils, than on clays. Strong, rampant- 

 growing sorts, as the Concord, Ives', Norton's Virginia, 

 Clinton, etc., on loamy or rich soils, should have at 

 least ten or twelve feet space on the row, and the rows 

 eight feet apart. If the ground is of a heavy clay, then 

 the distance on the rows may be reduced two feet. For 

 varieties like Catawba, lona, etc., eight feet apart each 

 way is about right. Delaware, Walter, and other short- 

 jointed varieties may be planted at six feet in the rows, 

 the rows eight feet. The above, if the training is to be 

 upon trellis, in any of the renewal modes. If the train- 

 ing is to be on stakes, in the serpentine or bow system, 

 then the distance may be reduced one foot each way. For 

 very long pruning and training on trellis, the distance 

 must be increased, some cultivators planting at twelve 

 feet, with the vines eighteen feet apart in the row. 



Depth to Plant. In heavy soils the upper tier of roots 

 should always have at least four to five inches of earth 

 over them, and in light or dry soils six to eight inches. 



Pruning when and how. For the annual or winter 

 pruning the best time is as soon as the wood is ripened in 

 the fall, but the work may be done any time until the 

 warmth of spring starts a rapid circulation of sap. Never 

 cut close to a bud, but leave an inch or two of wood be- 

 yond. For summer pruning, see Garden Culture, page 

 276, and for the length of wood left at the winter pruning, 

 refer to the method of training that it is proposed to 

 practise. 



Modes of Training. Under the head of Garden Cul- 

 ture, we have described several modes of training that 

 are sometimes practised in the vineyard, to which the 

 reader is referred. In Ohio and Missouri, the mode gen- 

 erally practised is called the renewal-cane system, and con- 



