90 AMERICAN GEAPE GROWING 



These will hardly prosper. The grape-grower, of all 

 others, should be a close observer of nature, a thinking 

 and reasoning being. He ought to experiment and try new 

 methods all the time, and should he find a better, be will- 

 ing to throw aside his old method, and adopt one more 

 suited to the wants of his vines. Only in this manner 

 can he expect to attain success. 



There is also the arm system, of which we hear so 

 much, and which certainly looks very pretty on paper. 

 But paper is patient, and the advantages of the sys- 

 tem cannot be denied, if every shoot and spur could be 

 made to grow just as in drawings, with three fine bunches 

 to each shoot. Upon applying it, however, we find 

 that vines are stubborn, some shoots will outgrow others, 

 and before we hardly know how, the whole beautiful 

 system is out of order. It may do to follow with a 

 few vines in gardens, or on arbors, but 1 do not think 

 that it will ever be successfully adopted for vineyard cul- 

 ture, as it involves too much labor in tying, pruning, etc. 

 I think the method already described will more fully 

 meet the wants of the vine grower than any I have yet 

 seen ; it is so simple that an intelligent person can soon 

 become familiar with it, and gives us new, healthy bear- 

 ing-wood every season. 



Pruning may be done in the fall, as soon as the leaves 

 have dropped, and continued, on mild days, during 

 the winter months. 



