FARMERS' REGISTER. 



295 



the information, both scientific and practical, which 

 will secure to the agricultural population relief 

 (rom every thing which blights and diininiphes 

 their crops. S. Y. 



GRAPE CULTURE. 



From the Franklin Farmer. 



Every bunch of grapes, according to Knight, 

 in the Hort. Trans., commences its Ibrmation as a 

 tendril, and it is always in the power of the culti- 

 vator, to cause it to remain a tendril. The blos- 

 soms are all additions, the formation of which is all 

 dependent upon agents, viz., upon the leaves, 

 which are required to elaborate the Ibod, and upon 

 a good exposure to liizht and heat. Hence the 

 importance of pruning in autumn or spring, to thin 

 and shorten the wood ; and in summer, lo increase 

 the exposure ol* the Imii to atmo3|)heric influence. 

 This practice is too much neglected, or too spar- 

 ingly performed, by novices in the grape culture. 

 It is essential to native as well as to foreign vari- 

 eties. It is too common a practice to train the Is- 

 abella and other native kinds on arbors, and to let 

 the wood accumulate as it will without using the 

 knife, or using it sparingly. The consequence is, 

 that the fruit is lessened, from want of exposure, its 

 time of ripening retarded, and its quality sensibly 

 impaired. One of the most extensive cultivators of 

 the native grape, Mr. E. H. Bonsall, of German- 

 town, Pa., says, that it is his practice, even after the 

 vines have attained a full capacity lor production 

 — say five years from the cutting, to cut them in 

 low — his object is to prepare them lor bearing an 

 average ot' fifty clusters to each, leaving several 

 shoots, from three to five joints to a vine for this 

 purpose; and that when fresh pruned, they will not 

 be more than lour lijet high at the greatest age. 

 We saw Mr. Bonsall's vineyard, consisting of 

 some acres, in the summer of 1833, and it had a 

 remarkably fine appearance. 



In the summer pruning of the grape, let these 

 rules be observed : 1. Suffer only one slioof, and 

 let that be the strongest, to grow from each joint ; 

 and if these are very near each other pinch off 

 every other one. 2. When the fruit has set, 

 which will always be upon the - new growth of 

 wood, and generally on lateral branches, shorten 

 the fruit-bearing laterals to three or lour eyes 

 above the fruit, and the laterals not bearing Iruil to 

 one eye from the main vine. The object of the 

 first is to throw the sap into the fi-uit, instead of 

 permitting it to become exhausted in the forma- 

 tion of new wood ; of the second, to preserve the 

 bud at the base of the lateral, which is the fruit 

 bud of the following year ; and both to prevent 

 the too great accumulation of wood and foliage. 

 The main vines may soon alter be shortened. 

 The extreme buds on the main vines, and ge- 

 nerally on the laterals, will generally burst, and 

 throw out a new growth. These may also be 

 occasionally shortened, without injury to the vine 

 or fruit. When the fruit has obtained its growlli 

 the process of ripening may be facilitated by thin- 

 ning the Ibliage about the fruit, so as to give it a 

 better exposure to the sun and air. 



In winter pruning, the laterals may be cut in 

 the main vines, taking care not to injure the buds 

 at their base, and the main vines may be shortened 

 to (he required length of two to six feet. 



Mr. Bonsall's mode of training his vines de- 

 serves notice as well for its cheapness as lor its 

 utility — of this we speak from experience. He 

 sets chestnut posts, at the distance of ten feet, 

 firmly in the ground, on the line of his rows. He 

 drives into the liice of these at regular intervals, 

 three (we preler four) stout nails, nearly up to the 

 head. He then stretches wire, of the size de- 

 nominated No. 11, along the whole line, making 

 it fast at the end, and giving it a turn round the 

 nail in every post. The posts stand five feet 

 above the ground ; the first wire is two and a half 

 feet from the ground, the second intermediate be- 

 tween that and the top of the post, and the third 

 at the top. To these wires the tendrils readily 

 clasp, and much labor is saved in tying, while 

 the wires do not intercept the sun from the fruit 

 and foliage. Tinned wire, though it cost more, 

 is preferable to the common sort, as it is far less 

 liable to corrode. Mr. Bonsall plants his rows 

 seven feet apart, and at the distance of four feet 

 in rows. It should be borne in mind, that the rich- 

 est grounds do not suit the grape so well as those 

 of moderate fertility — as the Ibrmer produce a su- 

 pei-abundance of wood, and fruit of inferior quality. 



MANURES. 



From tlie Genesee Fanner. 



Almost every distinguished farmer has had some 

 hobby, some favorite method of cultivation, some 

 panacea for all the evils of poor soils and worse 

 cultivation, to the adoption of which all other things 

 are made subservient. Thus, Tull thought of pul- 

 verization alone; Cooke's system is drilling and 

 weeding ; Lord Dundonal's is draining ; Bake- 

 well, in improving cattle and sheep had reference 

 only to size and propensity to fatten ; he used to 

 say, he did not care whether there was any wool 

 on his sheep or ni-t ; Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 

 went lor the wool alone, and the flocks he pro- 

 duced are without a rival. With us, the hobby of 

 some lies in the rotation of crops; some have un- 

 limited faith in renovating soils, by alternating 

 wheat and clover; while others place their de- 

 pendence on roots. But it may be remarked, that 

 while all other hobbies may occasionally be rid- 

 den too hard, the man who directs a considerable 

 part of his time, and his spare capital, to the pre- 

 paration and use of manures, will have no occa- 

 sion to regret the expenditure ; lor it may be put 

 down as a truth in agriculture, that the character 

 of a farm, and the liirnier, may be pretty accurate- 

 ly known, by the quantity of manure prepared and 

 used upon the premises. 



There are lew thinirs in which American agri- 

 culturists exhibit a greater want of forethought 

 and good husbandry, than in the general neglect 

 of the means they [lossess lor retaining or increas- 

 ing the fertility of" their soils. Animal manure is, 

 in all cultivated countries, the great agent for pro- 

 moting li'rlility, and for replacinii; ihose ingredients 

 in the soil essential to vegetation, but which are 

 grailually exhausted by croppinii. Whatever 

 opinion we may form of the philosophical theories 

 of the present day, on the subject of nutrition in 

 plants, the liict that animal manure increases fer- 

 tility is doubted by none, and it is the practice 

 and not the theory with which the farmer should 



