HORTICULTURE 243 



ing season. Furthermore, fall-pruned vines can be more easily pro- 

 tected from the severity of the ensuing winter. 



Summer Pruning. Summer pruning is a mere training of the 

 growth of the vine as it develops, and should be performed at a time 

 when the shoots are young and tender, so that superfluous buds may 

 be readily pinched or broken off with the thumb and fingers. It 

 begins with the beginning of the season's growth, usually in May in 

 the North. 



The vine developed as directed has its horizontal arms trained 

 in opposite directions on the first wire of the trellis. On these arms 

 are fruit-bearing canes and renewal spurs. On the fruit-bearing 

 canes, trained upward from the arm to the top of the trellis, there 

 will be from three to six eyes, according to the height of the trellis 

 and the length of the joints of each cane. From each eye only one 

 shoot, and that the most vigorous, is allowed to grow, but these 

 shoots, one from each eye, should be carefully guarded. They are 

 very tender and may be broken off if not supported until sufficiently 

 hardened or until they have clasped the wires with their tendrils. A 

 high wind or even a small bird alighting on it may break off one of 

 these tender shoots, and in that case the fruit prospect at that point ia 

 gone for the year. These fruit-bearing shoots should be trained on. 

 the wires of the trellis. 



The fruit clusters will be borne on these shoots at distances 

 ranging from 6 to 15 inches from their base. There will be one, two, 

 sometimes three, or even four clusters on each shoot, the numbers 

 varying according to the habits of the variety, etc. The shoot should 

 be pinched back at a point about 10 inches beyond the last bunch of 

 fruit. It will then incline to throw out laterals or side branches. 

 They, too, should be pinched off at the second or third leaf from 

 their base. This will be all the summer pruning the bearing wood 

 will require. 



Again, at the beginning of the season a single bud is allowed to 

 start from the renewal spur made by cutting away the cane that had 

 borne fruit the year before, and occurring on the horizontal arms 

 alternating with the fruit-bearing canes of the current year. This 

 should be trained up to the top of the trellis, and all the side shoots 

 or laterals that are thrown out from it should be broken off. This 

 shoot is for the bearing wood the succeeding year, after the wood that 

 has borne fruit this year is cut away to form the renewal spur. 



The Best Grapes for Home Planting. The principles that form 

 the basis of vineyard management are general and simple. With 

 the selection of varieties, however, it is very different. Their 

 behavior and requirements are varied according to climate, soil, 

 exposure, etc., so that it would be the sheerest presumption, without 

 personal and practical experience, to offer a list for the planter in 

 any given section. A few varieties, however, can be grown success- 

 fully in many parts of the North. Among these none have yet sur- 

 passed the well-known Concord and its seedlings the "Worden and 

 the Moore, syn. Moore's Early, both black, and the Niagara, a white 

 or green grape. It is worthy of note that a summary of answers to 



