REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 61 



are tied with rye straw to the middle and upper wires. This summer tying 

 is almost continuous after the shoots are long enough to reach the middle 

 wire. 



The following year all the wood is cut away except two or three canes 

 that have developed from the basal buds of the canes put up the previous 

 year, or that have grown from the spurs. In the event of a third cane being 

 retained, it is tied to the middle wire. Spurs are again maintained close to 

 the head for renewal purposes. The other two canes are tied along the 

 lower wire as before. If the same spurs are used for a few years they so 

 lengthen that the canes arising from them reach above the wire and cannot 

 be so well managed in the "willowing". It is desirable to provide new spurs 

 annually, selecting those canes for the purpose that arise from the head of 

 the vine or near it. It is possible by careful pruning to so cut away the old 

 wood that, practically all that remains after each pruning is the stem. Thus 

 the vine is renewed almost to the ground. When the stem approaches the 

 end of its usefulness, a shoot is allowed to grow from the ground, and the 

 old one cut away. This system of training is especially adapted to slow 

 growing varieties, or those situated on poor soils, where but little wood 

 growth is made. It is ideally adapted for the growing of Catawba on the 

 hillsides of the Keuka Lake District. It is well adapted to late maturing 

 varieties that are planted out of their zone. Concord, growing under average 

 conditions, is too vigorous to be trained to this system. It makes a tremen- 

 dous growth of wood out of all proportion to the quantity of fruit, which is 

 inclined to be very inferior. The chief objection to the system is the amount 

 of summer tying involved, which comes at a time when attention to tillage 

 should be given. It might prove profitable in the growing of dessert varieties, 

 that have been discarded for lack of vigor and which command a fancy 

 price. On thin hillside soils, the Catawba requires training modeled after 

 this system, but on the heavier upland ones, with shorter pruning, it can be 

 grown on the Arm plan. In our test vineyard, Concord trained to this system, 

 has yielded a yearly average of four and three-tenths tons per acre during 

 the past four years. Here we have put up from two to four canes per vine, 

 excepting in 1911 when an average of but two was used. These canes 

 carried from six to ten buds. Those tied along the lower wire having the 

 first number, while the longer ones were tied to the middle one. 



So far as the data is now available, it indicates that the Concord can be 

 successfully grown, under judicious pruning, when trained to the Single-Stem 

 Kniffen, the Umbrella Kniffen or the Chautauqua or Arm. The Kniffen 

 systems possess several points of superiority over the Arm, as has already 

 been described, yet the fact remains that the latter, when the vines are well 

 pruned, is proving a successful method. 



Niagara, Hartford, Champion, Clinton, Diana, Hernito, Noah, Mo. Ries- 

 ling, Agawam, Lindley, Herbert, and Lucile can be trained very satisfactorily 

 to either of these three systems. 



Catawba, Delaware, lona, Dutchess, Campbell, Eumelan, Jessica, Ver- 

 gennes and Regal are, as a rule, grown to better advantage when trained 

 to the High Renewal. 



Other varieties of vigor, ranging between the two, of which Worden is 

 a good example, should be pruned somewhat longer than the last named group 

 and trained to the High Renewal. 



