Gleanings and Curiosities of Grape Literature. 



365 



eties with tender foliage, with the 

 strong, healthy growers, is a good 

 one. We think by planting, gay two 

 Delawares and one Concord or Ives 



alternately, and letting the canes of 

 the Concord overshadow the fruit of 

 the Delaware, the disastrous sun- 

 scald could bo avoided. — Ed.] 



GLEANINGS AND CUEIOSITIES OF GEAPE LITEEATUEE. 



Layers of grape vines may now be 

 made with good pro8j)ects of success; 

 and if you find it more convenient to 

 procure cuttings at the end of this 

 month than in spring, you may plant 

 them ; but it will be necessary to cover 

 them lightly with straw, leaves, or 

 some other light covering during win- 

 ter, or many of them will fail to live. 

 Though these plants are extremely 

 hardy when once established, they are 

 rather tender in their infancy, and 

 every advantage of season ought to 

 bo afforded them, especially where 

 winters are sometimes very severe. 

 We are not in favor of pruning grape 

 vines before winter, but, at any rate, 

 never prune in frosty weather, nor 

 when a frost is ex^jected. In pruning, 

 always cut upwards, and in a sloping 

 direction. Always leave an inch of j 

 blank wood beyond a terminal bud. 

 In cutting out an old branch, prune it 

 even with the parent limb, that the 

 wound may heal quickly. Let the 

 general autumn pruning take j^lace as 

 soon after the 1st of October as the 

 gathering of the fruit will permit. 

 Never prune in the months of April 

 or May in our locality here ; pruning 

 in either of these months causes bleed- 

 ing, and occasions thereby a wasteful 

 and injurious expenditure of sap. 

 Use a very sharp pruning knife, if 

 possible almost as sharp as a razor. 



Prune to make enough fruit shoots? 

 so as to make plent}^ of fruit, and 

 enough wood not to be too much 

 overbalanced by the roots in our cli- 

 mate of, often, close, sultry, damp, or 

 wet weather. 



[We copy the above from the Octo- 

 ber number of the Ruralist, one of 

 our exchanges, published at Cincin- 

 nati, and would liice to know how 

 much wiser our readers feel them- 

 selves after its perusal than before? 

 We confess that to us it appears as if 

 it would make " confusion worse con- 

 founded." Let us look at it a little 

 closer. " Layers of grape vines may 

 now be made with good prospects of 

 success." What layers, we would 

 like to know? To fill vacancies in 

 the vineyard, or for propagating? If 

 the latter, it would seem to be a rather 

 strano-e time in October. Planting 

 cuttings in fall has proved a complete 

 failure with us, unless they were 

 mulched very heavily; not because 

 the cuttings are tender, but because 

 the action of the frost lifts them out 

 of the ground, or as the familiar phrase 

 is, they "heave." "We are not in 

 favor of pruning grape vines before 

 winter," and " let the general autumn 

 pruning take place as soon after the 

 first of October as the gathering of 

 the fruit will permit," would not seem 

 to harmonize very well, if we can un- 



