The Drooping System. 69 



system of training will probably not allow of the 

 successful girdling of the vine for the purpose of 

 hastening the maturity and augmenting the size of 

 the fruit. Yet heavy crops can be obtained from 

 it, if liberal fertilizing and good cultivation are em- 

 ployed, and the fruit is nearly always first-class. A 

 Concord vine trained in this manner produced in 

 1892 eighty clusters of first quality grapes, weigh- 

 ing forty pounds. 



Another type of Umbrella training is shown in 

 fig. 26, before pruning. Here five main canes were 

 allowed to grow, instead of two. Except in very 

 strong vines, this top is too heavy, and it is probably 

 never so good as the other (fig. 25), if the highest 

 results are desired ; but for the grower who does 

 not care to insure high cultivation it is probably a 

 safer system than the other. 



The Low, or One-Wire Kniffin. A modification 

 of this Umbrella system is sometimes used, in which 

 the trellis is only three or four feet high and com- 

 prises but a single wire. A cane of ten or a dozen 

 buds is tied out in each direction, and the shoots are 

 allowed to hang in essentially the same manner as 

 in the True or High Kniffin system. The advan- 

 tages urged for this system are the protection of the 

 grapes from wind, the large size of the fruit due to 

 the small amount of bearing wood, the ease of lay- 

 ing down the vines, the readiness with which the 

 top can be renewed from the root as occasion de- 

 mands, and the cheapness of the trellis. 



