170 



The Grape Culturist. 



leaf buds pushing. I've never seen a 

 live cutting fail to push its leaves. The 

 trouble is, the leaf is certani, unless 

 carefully treated, to push forth and 

 flourish on the nutriment stored in each : 

 bud, and then die before roots are pres- \ 

 ent to sustain them. 



A good cheap plan is to stick cut- | 

 tings of two or three eyes in common i 

 soil and lay strips of plank over the 

 top, sustained at intervals by brick set 

 on edge. The cuttings thus get the j 

 morning and evening sun, and are \ 

 shadeil IVoni the midday heat. The I 

 plank should be removed at night, and 

 before each rain, in order that the em- 

 br3-o plants may get all the moisture 

 possible. I've never succeeded to any 

 extent by simply mulching with straw 

 without other accessories. 



Any one having a bearing vineyard 

 yet unpruned, should now prune. It 

 will not bleed to hurt, and it is perhaps 

 better done now than in the fall ; be- 

 cause I find a majority of the fruit buds 

 on my Concord vines, that were pruned 

 last fall, are now dead ; the remaining 

 stems died and dried into the fruit bud 

 and killed that. The stems might have 

 been cut too short, and this assisted 

 the result, but aside from that, we 

 should do nothing to weaken the con- 

 stitution of any plant just at the 

 moment when it is about to encounter 

 the perils of a severe winter. This re- 

 flection stayed my hand when about to 

 prune last fall, and I feel fully justified 

 by tho result. 



How then shall those of us that have 

 fruiting vines this spring prune them 

 to produce the proper quantum of fruit? 

 This is an important matter; and al- 

 though a vine, whether pruned or un- 



pruned, will certainly produce fruit, 

 yet it will as certainly be more profit- 

 able if it is properly pruned. Feeling 

 the importance of the point, I have 

 consulted the three most prominent 

 authorities on the vine in this country, 

 to-wit : John Thin, Fuller and Hus- 

 mann. 



John Phin tells us to prune to two 

 horizontal arms, and leave four buds to 

 each arm for fruiting the fourth year ; 

 then cut each alternate shoot, on each 

 arm, to a length of four feet, and the 

 other four shoots to the lowest good 

 bud. 



Fuller tells us, oh, no ! this will never 

 do. The vine must be trained with two 

 horizontal arms, it is true, but then six 

 buds must be left to each arm, and 

 then the shoots from these must be cut 

 back all to two buds each, so that they 

 will all break and grow off evenly, and 

 none get the start of another. Neither 

 should any of them be allowed to grow 

 higher than the others, and thereby 

 appropriate more than their own share 

 of nutriment. 



Well, Mr. Husmaun, what do you 

 say ? Do you know anything about it? 

 Oh, yes, says Husmann. It's all very 

 well, Mr. I'hin and Mr. Fuller, to talk 

 your two arms. It looks mighty well 

 on paper. But " paper is patient, and 

 while it can not be denied that it has 

 its advantages, if ever spur and shoot 

 can be made to grow just as repre- 

 sented, in your drawing, Avith three fine 

 bunches to each shoot ; yet upon trying 

 it practically, we find that vines are 

 stubborn things, and some shoots will 

 outgrow others ; and before we hardly 

 know how, the whole beautiful system 

 is out of order." And then he goes on 



