Summer Pruning the Vine. 



87 



may be done as soon as the young 

 growth has started about a foot, which, 

 in our latitude, will not be until the 

 middle of May. In the South, no 

 doubt, April is the time, and as we try 

 to write for the whole country, we shall 

 often describe the necessary operations 

 ahead of time for northern localities, 

 always describing the stage of growth, 

 however, so that they also can easily 

 know when it should be done. Cover 

 with well pulverized earth, about two 

 inches deep over the old cane. If 3'ou 

 can mulch with spent tan or saw-dust, 

 it will be a groat benefit to the plants 

 during the heat of summer, and assist 

 the formation of roots. 



For the South, summer pruning will 

 also commence during April. But, as 

 this is a eery important operation, we 

 have tried to discuss it more at length 

 in a separate article, to which we refer 

 our readers. 



Surface drains should be carefully 

 cleared of all obstructions, and new 

 ones opened where necessary. As soon 

 as weeds show themselves, the plow and 

 hoe should be resorted to again, and the 

 ground kept in a mellow and friable 

 condition. But do not work the ground 

 when wet ; it will act like poison on the 

 vines, and you can not again get the 

 ground into the same condition during 

 the whole summer. 



SUMMER PRUNING THE VINE.— No. 1. 



Of all the operations in grape cul- 

 ture, this is one of the most important, 

 and 3^et it is most imperfectly per- 

 formed and understood by the majority 

 of our vintners. Many think that if 

 they have only performed fall pruning 

 properly, it is of very little moment 

 how summer pruning is performed. 

 Yet, the two operations are intimately 

 connected ; in fact, one is but a contin- 

 uation of the other. Without proper 

 and judicious summer pruning, it is 

 impossible to prune judiciously in the 

 fall. If 3^ou have allowed six to eight 

 canes to grow in summer, w^here you 

 need but two or three, none of them 

 will be fit to bear a full crop ; none be 

 properly developed. By pruning some- 

 what longer in fall ; early summer prun- 

 ing, rubbing out all imperfect and weak 

 shoots, will enable you to have only well 



developed, strong shoots and bunches, 

 and take away all the weak, imperfect 

 ones. We therefore prune longer in 

 fall than the majority of our vintners, 

 which gives a double advantage ; should 

 the frost of winter have injured or 

 killed any of the first buds, we still 

 have enough left ; and should this not 

 be the case, we will have our choice to 

 rule oil' all imperfect shoots ; to reduce 

 the niHiiber uf bunches at the first 

 pinching, and thus retain only strong 

 canes for next year's fruiting, and have 

 only large, well developed bunches. 



But to secure these advantages we 

 have certain rules, which we follow 

 strictlv, and which we will try and 

 make as plain to our readers, in a 

 series of articles, as we possibly can. 

 We are glad to see that the attention 

 of the grape growers of the countrv is 



