Sunimer Pruning the Vine. 



137 



SUMMER PRUNING THE VINE.— No. 2. 



"We come now to the second stage 

 of summer pruning, and shall tr}- to 

 be as explicit as possible in describing 

 our mode. In answer to numerous 

 inquiries, we will state that this prac- 

 tice was fii'st followed here b}" Mr. 

 William Poeschel, one of our most ob- 

 servant and best vine dressers. He 

 perceived that some shoots, of which 

 the ends had been eaten off by w^ornis 

 at a very earl}"^ time, developed their 

 bunches much more rapidl}^ and 

 evenl}'. He stated the fiiet to us in 

 the summer of 1852, also showed us 

 some rows he had pinched in this 

 manner, and some ho had treated in 

 the old manner of summer pruning, 

 namely, waiting until after the bloom, 

 and then pinching or cutting the shoot 

 tw^o leaves beyond the last bunch. 

 The difference was so marked and ap- 

 pai'ent in favor of the now method 

 over the old, that we were at once 

 convinced of its advantages, and ad- 

 vocated it through the press. We 

 can well remember a very Avarm con- 

 troversy we had about this in the 

 columns of the Cincinnatus, and are 

 happy to say that it ended in a con 

 viction of our friend Warder to the 

 " new heresy," of which he became a 

 warm advocate from that time on. 

 We could state many similar cases; 

 and the success of Mr. M'Pike at 

 Alton, so often commented upon in 

 public, is owing, to a great extent, to 

 his following this method as soon as 

 his vines commenced bearing. It is 

 one of the discoveries the diligent ob- 

 server of nature so often makes, small 

 in itself, but important in its results, 

 and which each of us can make every- 



day if he will observe the habits of liis 

 plants thinkingly, and draw conclu- 

 sions from his observations. 



After the first pinching, the dormant 

 buds in the axils of the leaves on the 

 fruit bearing shoots will each push 

 out a lateral shoot opposite the young 

 bunches. Our second operation con- 

 sists in pinching these laterals each 

 back to one leaf as soon as we can get 

 hold of the shoot above the first leaf, 

 so that we get a young and vigorous 

 leaf additional, opposite to each bunch 

 of grapes. These serve as elevators 

 of the sap, and also as an excellent 

 protection and shade to the fruit. 

 Remem1)er, our aim is not to rob the 

 plant of its foliage, but to make two 

 leaves grow where there Avas but one 

 before, and at a jilace where they are 

 of more benefit to the fruit. Had we 

 allowed the fruit bearing shoots to 

 grow unchecked, as some grape grow- 

 ers advocate, these buds would have 

 remained dormant; the old leaves drop 

 off in August, and the fruit is exposed 

 to the scorching sun. Besides, the 

 branches intertwine so with their ten- 

 drils that it is ver}' difficult to manage 

 them afterwards. By our method, our 

 rows of vines have the ajtpearance of 

 leafy walls, each bunch of fruit prop- 

 erly shaded, and yet each part of the 

 vine is properly ventilated. 



We come now to another of those 

 accidental discoveries, which has 

 proved of great use to us in the man- 

 agement of the Concord, Herbemont, 

 Taylor, etc. In the summer of 1862, 

 when a piece of Concord, planted in 

 1861, was growing rapidly, a severe 

 hail storm cut up the young shoots, 



