138 An American Fruit-Farm 



and sun will do the rest. An open center does not 

 mean a cave, or a shell-like top. It means ventila- 

 tion and sunlight : no more. Pruning and trimming 

 may be perennial. Carry your pruning-knife in 

 your pocket and trim at any time; tar and paint- 

 pot are not needed when you use the knife. 



Grapevines must be tied as well as trimmed. 

 They must hang in the air, not lie on the ground. 

 Grape-trimming, in the Lake Shore Valley, is the 

 winter job. It may begin as soon as the grapes 

 are picked and the leaves have fallen; it must be 

 finished before the sap starts in the spring. But 

 every wind brings down the vines and calls out 

 men and women with their bimches of string, cut 

 in length, to tie up the vines again to the wires. 

 When the vineyard is trimmed and the canes — 

 three or four in nimiber — are fastened to the 

 wires, short lengths of a fine wire are used. No 

 small part of the expense of running a vineyard is 

 caused by the trimming and tying of the vines, 

 particularly the tying after a high wind. When 

 the vines are trimmed and tied and the brush has 

 been hauled out from the rows and burned, the 

 vineyard is ready for cultivation. This begins as 

 soon as you can work the land; whence the desira- 

 bility of having ''early land*' — that is, light 

 gravel, or loam, as against a stiff, heavy clay. " Yet 

 the heavy clay land, though it cannot be worked 

 early, produces grapes fine in quality and abun- 

 dantly. But it IS hard ground to work and there- 

 fore the more expensive. In the Lake Shore Valley 



