GRAPE CULTURE. 21 



In answer to an cnquir}' Mr. Barnett said that, after pinching, 

 the laterals do not grow long enough to be troublesome. lie 

 pinches the shoots two leaves be^'ond the cluster as soon as the 

 vine has done blossoming, and removes all but one cluster of fruit. 

 Dr. Waters asked what would be the effect if the leaves at and be- 

 yond the cluster were removed ; and Mr. Barnott's repl}' was that 

 if that took place before the fruit colored, it would be hard and 

 sour as vinegar. 



Dr. Waters said that he could show bushels of Clintons grown 

 at the ends of the shoots, as sweet as ever Clintons were. 



Mr. Barnett said that he could not agree with him from his own 

 experience, and referred to standard authorities to corroborate his 

 statement.* In reply to a question, Mr. Barnett said that he left 

 the end of the main shoot unpinched, for a safety-valve, and 

 sometimes another strong shoot where an arm was to be replaced 

 by a new one. 



Mr. Hovey said that the immense bunches of grapes that have 

 been grown in Europe within the past few years, have been borne 

 mostly on long shoots. Every bit of growth that you can get at 

 the extremity adds so much to the strength of the vine. 



Mr. Barnett exhibited a portion of a root which had had the 

 end cut off" in root pruning, showing that they do not extend much 

 beyond the beds. The laterals, which start after pinching, extend 

 about a foot from the trellis. In building the trellis, where there 

 are parallel vine beds, a large post is required in the centre, but 

 at the ends a fence picket three inches wide by six feet in length 

 is sufficient, as the vines brace the ends. He used old telegraph 

 wire, which he bought at a low price, preferring it to galvanized 

 wire, as less apt to burn the shoots, on account of its rust. He 

 estimated the cost of excavating, refilling, fertilizing, slocking 

 the vine bed, and trellising, at twenty-five cents per vine ; that the 

 value of the vines, if cultivated and uncropped, would increase to 

 double this cost, annually, for six years, and then might be suffered 

 to bear and produce annually three or four tons of grapes per acre, 

 equal to three or four hundred dollars at the present value, and that 

 there are one million acres of waste land in this State suitable for 

 the vine. As the trellis covers three-fourths of the land, the soil 

 from it, if not needed for other uses, might go into the vine beds 



♦See Mohr on the Grape Vine, New York, 1867, pp, 30, 31. 



