232 



The Grape Culturist. 



TKAILING CHAIN CULTURE. 



Editor Grape Culturist: 



When a description of this culture 

 was published in the papers last sea- 

 son, as it hapj)ened I had several of 

 Norton's Virginia plants chain-trailed 

 in the same way. 



I had practiced it for years on 

 cucumbers. I found they would grow 

 much faster and do better when 

 trailed on forks or on brush under 

 them than when on the ground. I 

 question if that mode of culture will 

 even go into general practice here in 

 vineyard culture; there is too much of 

 the French pattern about it. For this 

 country it requires a great man^^ 

 little forks; still I think it useful in 

 propagating new varieties where as 

 many plants as possible are to be pro- 

 duced from a small quantity of wood. 



It is astonishing what a growth 

 they will make when trailed in that 

 way ; those Norton's Virginia plants 

 that I trailed last summer, only one 

 year growth, if I liad laid down all 

 the wood they made, I am sure would 

 have produced more than a hundred 

 plants each. I have about thirty 

 Goethe grafts that I set last March ; 

 they did not start till June, but when 

 they did push, the way they went 

 ahead was not slow ; they were worked 

 on Isabella vines four years old, often 

 trailing them six or eight weeks. I 

 layered them, and have a fine pros- 

 pect for fifty to seventy-five plants 

 from each graft, with good canes for 

 a full crop next season. I use sap- 

 lings an inch or less through, cut 

 them in lengths of fifteen inches. 



sharpen one end to put into the^ 

 ground, split the other end, press a 

 chip into the out, as it is more expe- 

 ditious than hunting forks. 



Some of your readers who attend- 

 ed the Illinois State Horticultural 

 meeting at Bunker Hill in 1868,, 

 will recollect that Dr. Warder exhi- 

 bited a grape-vine from a single bud 

 of a graft that measured over ninety 

 feet; of course, I don't expect mine- 

 will come up to Dr. Warder's speci- 

 men, but do that some of them will 

 come near it. I have faith in Goethe. 



I have been experimenting the two 

 last seasons, and I believe grapevines 

 will make a larger growth and do 

 better if suffered to trail on the 

 ground the first two seasons, than 

 they will tied up to stakes or trellis. 

 Of course, cultivate but one way, and 

 train them along the rows; it saves 

 two years of rotting of stakes in the^ 

 ground. 



A. A. HiLLIARD. 



Brighton, July 25, 1870. 



[We publish the above with pleasure,: 

 although we confess Ave can not see- 

 how our correspondent can keep the 

 weeds down, or keep his vines culti- 

 vated, under this system. For the 

 purpose of layering, we can not see 

 the necessity of forks; if it is desired 

 to grow the largest number of plants, 

 the vines may be layered in June or 

 July, by simply letting them run on 

 the ground, and we think they will 

 root easier than if spread over the 

 forks. Ed.] 



