814 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



April 24, 1829. 



cut ends over with thiu strips of India rubber, 

 and in every case prevented any escape of sap. I 

 imagine this substance to be preferable to any oth- 

 er for binding in buds for grafting, &c. 

 Yours, &c., 



BENJAMIN BELL. 

 Charlestown, April 16, 1829. 



From the American Farmer. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



Mr Editor — As the season of the vine is now 

 at hand, I think it may be of some use, or at least 

 some interest, to many' of your readers, to have a 

 few short rules and observations to direct them in 

 the culture of that valuable and beautiful plant. — 

 These I have e.xtracted from French books, and 

 especially from the " Ecole du Jardin J'ruitier," a 

 work of considerable merit, and of great authority 

 in France, where the grape is raised of so fine a 

 quality, and in such abundance. I have added 

 some remarks of ray own, or from other sources, 

 when the subject seemed to require them. 



AN AMATEUR. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



Our language is somewhat deficient in definite 

 terms for the Tarious operations performed upon 

 the vine. It will therefore be proper for me, be- 

 fore proceeding further, to establish the meaning 

 of the words I shall have occasion to employ. 



The words pruning, lopping, and trimming, are 

 commonly used indifferently to e.\press the same 

 thing and difierent things. There are various dis- 

 tinct o])erations to which they may be applied, 

 and are applied ; and much confusion is the con- 

 sequence. 



In the course of this paper, I shall use the terra 

 pruning, for that cutting which the vine receives 

 in the fall, after it has shed its leaves, or in the 

 spring, before it has recovered them. Lopping I 

 reject altogether, as meaning a more violent op- 

 eration than those regularly performed upon the 

 vine. Trimming I shall apply exclusively to the 

 operation, performed several times during the 

 summer, of plucking off the useless or injurious 

 shoots. Thus, pruning will corres])ond with the 

 French word tailler ; and (rimming', with ehourge- 

 ouner. 



PROPAGATION. 



Of the modes of propagating the vine I shall 

 say nothing, as they are generally well understood. 

 1 will observe, however, that my own experience 

 has convinced mo, that a cutting with one bud or 

 eye is as likely to succeed, and will produce at 

 least as fine a [ilant, as a cutting a foot or eight- 

 een inches long ; especially if it be i)lantcd in a 

 j)0f, early in March, and placed in a hot bed until 

 the warm weather. In July it may, with perfect 

 security, be turned out of the pot into the place, 

 in tlie open ground, where it is to grow. But hot 

 beds and flower jiots are not indispensable. It 

 will do as well to plant the cuttings in boxes at 

 tlie usual time for the open ground, and place 

 them in some situation where they may be shel- 

 tered from the e.\cessive heat of the .^im. In the 

 fall they can be transplanted to their destined 

 places. One of the advantages of this mode of 

 propagating by cuttings is, that an ordinary cut- 

 ting will supply you with ton or twelve plants in- 

 stead of only one ; a consideration of some impor- 

 tance when you have only one cutting of a rare 

 species of grape. 



The proper time to prune the vine is in March, 

 earlier or later in the month, according to the state 

 of the weather. To prune too earlj% is apt to 

 make the buds shoot prematurely, before the frosts 

 are over ; and to prune too late exposes the plant 

 to an injurious bleeding, or loss of sap. If you 

 prune in the fall you run the risk, should the win- 

 ter bo severe, of having most of the bearing 

 branches destroyed. In this city and neighbor- 

 hood, people commonly prune too early in the 

 spring. Most persons have already pruned theirs 

 a week or a fortnight ago, before the late hard 

 frost* and heavy falls of snow. Mine are not yet 

 pruned, (March 23d,) and may not be if the 

 weather continues unfavorable, for a week or ten 

 days to come. 



In pruning, cut half an inch above the bud, to 

 prevent the branch that will sprout from it from 

 being easily blown or broken off. The little stump 

 that remains may be removed the next year. — 

 Also cut slopingly, and on the side opposite to the 

 bud, that the sap which exudes may not run down 

 upon it and injure it. 



A vine should be pruned according to its age. 



1st year ; leave one bud. 



2d year ; leave two buds. 



3d year ; leave three buds. 



4th year ; leave four buds. 



5th year, and afterwards ; leave five or six 

 buds. 



I speak only of those vines that grow in the 

 open vineyard and are staked, and not of those 

 spread on trellises ; although most of these rules 

 are apiilieable to the latter also. But they requirt 



other attentions, and deserve a separate notice 



In the third year, vine dressera generally leave a 

 short side-shoot to the principal stock, with one 

 bud on it ; in the 4th year, a side-shoot with two 

 buds ; in the 5th year, one with two or three 

 buds. Indeed, if the vine be of mature age and 

 exceedingly vigorous, they often leave the princi- 

 pal branch from three to five, or six feet long, ac- 

 cording to its strength, with all its buds ; and, at 

 the same time, a side-shoot a foot long. In some 

 soils and situations, the vine is so vigorous that it 

 would exhaust itself in barren length of limbs,and 

 produce no fruit, if you pruned it to so few buds 

 as those prescribed for ordinary cases ; and you 

 must therefore weaken and tame it, as it were, by 

 loading it with fruit. Each one must judge for 

 himself, from observation, when these precautions 

 become necessary. When a vine betrays too 

 much luxuriance, it is often brought into bearing, 

 by leaving five or six of the largest of the last 

 year's branches, one of them five or si.x feet long, 

 and the others with from one to five or six buds 

 upon each, according to its apparent strength. In 

 those cases, on the contrary, where the vine is 

 feeble, two or three branches, with from four to 

 two buds on each, will be enough. 



It is the opinion in France, that the vine should 

 be kept lotv, in order that its fruit may receive the 

 benefit of the heat reflected from the ground ; and 

 that it should be suffered to grow and bear high, 

 only in the hottest ehmates. In some countries it 

 is trained U|)on the trees. I have seen it, in the 

 plains of Lombardy, hanging from the elm or the 

 poplar, in festoons from tree to tree, for great dis- 

 tances, covered with loads of fruit. But the trees 

 are there regularly trimmed and topped for fire 

 wood, and therefore give so little shade as not to 

 injure the grape. 



STAKING AND TYING. 



As soon as the vine is pruned, it must be staked 

 with poles of the height which you intend to al- 

 low the vine to attain ; and the vines must be tied 

 to them. By staking later, after the buds have 

 shooted, you may break off many of the young 

 branches. 



TRIMMING. 



Mout the middle of May, or somewhat later, ae- 

 cording to the season, it will be necessary to trim 

 your vines. 



You will find that they have produced many 

 young branches, and that in some instances several 

 shoots have sprung from a single bud ; and you 

 must therefore reduce each vine to that allowance 

 of branches which you had assigned it at the time 

 of pruning, according to its age, or its age and 

 strength both considered. If this be its first year, 

 carefully pluck or pinch off all the shoots but one, 

 leaving that which appears most thriving ; if ita 

 second year, of all but two ; and so on, according 

 to the age and vigor of each. 



This operation must not be performed too soon ; 

 for, if it be, the vine will throw out a still greater 

 number of suckers or shoots than it had before. 

 It is not difficult to ascertain, by inspection, when 

 the shoots have attained the size at which they 

 may be securely removed. Do not hesitate to 

 remove some that show fruit ; for if that fruit 

 were left, it would only diminish the quality, 

 and perhaps even the quantity, of the whole 

 crop. 



After trimming, immediately tie the shoots to 

 the stakes. 



About the first of June, or somewhat later, accord- 

 ing to the season, and to the precocity and vigor of 

 the plant, you must again tie the shoots to the 

 stakes, for they will have grown much longer thaa 

 when you tied them last ; and give them a second 

 trimming, by pinching off such as have started 

 from the axillas of the leaves. 



About the first of July, or somewhat earlier or later, 

 according to the circumstances above alluded to, give 

 them a third trimming and tying, taking off all 

 useless shoots. In France, it is usual at the same 

 time to break off the top of the vine, at a joint, 

 I about the height of the stake, or espalier, or wall. 

 But many experienced persons think it had better 

 not be done in this country. If done at all, it 

 should be done late ; and I may say, generally, of 

 the various trimmings, that they had better be 

 done later than earlier than I have indicated ; for 

 vegetation is so luxuriant in this climate, that the 

 vine is much more apt, than in Europe, to push 

 new shoots after being deprived of the first. 



It will be necessary, during the whole summer, to 

 remove from time to time, any new shoots that 

 may appear. 



TRELLISES. 



To prune a vine trained on trellises or espali- 

 ers, or walls, you untie and loosen from the trellis 

 all the younger branches, leaving the older and 

 principal branches attached. Then cut off all the 

 dead wood, knots, little stumps, useless twigs, &c. 

 and remove dead leaves, cobwebs, snails, insects' 

 nests, &c. The best way of training a vine, is to 

 stretch out its two princij)al hmbs, like arms, hor- 

 izontally, to the right and lefl, about a foot from 

 tiie ground. This, I will suppose, has been done 

 in former years, and that the vine remains divided 

 in that way. You will permit each of these 

 arms to advance, every year, from three to six 



