THE GENESEE FARMER. 



63 



A person may have the knife and the saw in his 

 hand all his life, and yet not know how to prune 

 properly. Pruning is both a science and an art; 

 and the pruner must know why he prunes, as well 

 as when and how, and should be able to give a 

 sdentitic reason for every operation. 



A tree consists of many parts, — roots, stem, 

 limbs, leaves, and so forth, — and one part depends 

 on anotlier, and the healtliy condition of the tree 

 depends on the healtliy action of all these parts. 



Trees pruned and trained low are found best 

 adapted to the wants of the cultivator. Without 

 tlie interference of the knife, trees grown in open 

 situations will of themselves naturally take this 

 form, the branches starting out close to the gi'ound, 

 and assuming somewhat of a pyramidal shape. 

 Yet, however closely we may follow nature in this 

 respect, the general conditions of fruit-bearing trees 

 are not natural conditions, and much skill and 

 judgment are necessary, in the cultivator, to pro- 

 duce a healthy and vigorous development of his 

 trees in these circumstances. 



We have planted in great haste, in this country, 

 and without knowledge on this subject, thereby 

 incurring great loss, which, for the future, can be 

 remedied only by stricter attention to this brancli 

 of horticulture. 



In answer to an inquiry, he would reply, briefly, 

 as a general rule, pruning should be done in the 

 latter part of winter or very early in the spring. 

 Much summer pruning may be done to advantage 

 by pinching oft" the ends of shoots in a growing 

 state, and thus save much subsequent labor. 



CULTIVATION OF THE GRAPE. 



Dr. p. p. Bristol having been requested to ex- 

 plain his method of grape-growing, replied that at 

 the present time he was unprepared to give any 

 very minute account of his experience or practice. 



The custom of pruning the Grape vine, he said, has 

 been practiced from the earliest times, as all past 

 experience has shown this to be an essential opera- 

 tion for the production of good fruit, on account 

 of the tendency, in all the Grape genus, to a super- 

 abundance of wood and foliage. The question now 

 naturally arises, how much and when the vme 

 should be pruned. Difterent cultivators have prac- 

 tictxl difterent methods. I shall confine myself to 

 the pruning of our hardy grapes in this climate. 



As the pruning and the culture are inseparable, 

 it will also be proper for me to speak of the culture 

 of tlie vine. Plants from two to three years old, or 

 even four years old, I consider the most favorable 

 for transplanting from the nursery. The ground 

 where they are planted should, in all cases, be 

 underdrained. If the fruit is intended for market 

 and table purposes, the vines should be planted in 

 rows each Avay, from six to twelve feet distant. 



Mr. McKay, of Naples, has obtained from one 

 acre of Isabella grapes, standing sixteen feet apart 

 each way, 11,000 pounds. The proper distance for 

 wine grapes is from three to four feet each way. 

 My system of pruning is, the first year to cut with- 

 in a foot of the ground — the second year cut to 

 about three feet of the ground, and stake the vine 

 well and allow three canes to grow. The pruning 

 should be done in the fall or early winter, as the 

 wood is open, and requires the cold and frost of 

 winter to close up the pores, from which, if pruned 

 in the spring, the sap would ooze out and iujui-e or 



destroy the vine. The cut should be an inch or 

 more aljove an ey6, to save it from being killed. 

 As tlie vine grows larger, it Avill need close pruning 

 — I prune to two buds. I prefer to train tlie vine 

 in a fan form, on Avire trellises. About the middle 

 of June, I pick oft' the ends of the shoots and take 

 off" about one-half the young fruit. As a general 

 rule, in all stages of the vine, one half of the wood 

 and one-half of the fruit should be removed ; the 

 fruit that remains will weigh as much as the Avhole 

 would if allowed to grow, and will be much finer. 

 Mr. Fat, of Brocton, Chautauque county, showed 

 some grapes at the last State Fair, which were the 

 finest I ever saw ; and he allowed only five bunches 

 to grow on a vine. I liave a vineyard of eight 

 acres, three years old, which bore this year 3,000 

 pounds of grapes, and among these were only three 

 bushels of imperfect ones. I think highly of the 

 renewal system of pruning, and shall adopt it jn the 

 future treatniient of my vines. 



J. J. Thomas had had the privilege of examining 

 some of tlie grapes gi-own by the previous speaker, 

 and could testify to their excellent character. Many 

 of them were seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. 



best soil for pears. 



The clause relating to the best soil for Pears, etc., 

 of the question under discussion in the afternoon, 

 was now resumed. 



H. E. Hooker considered strong clayey soils best 

 for the Pear. Good draining is necessary. Has 

 seen cases where he thought the Pear would bear 

 moisture better than Apples or Cherries. 



L. F. Allen — I do not mean to say much on this 

 subject, because I do not know much about it. I 

 think the Pear a very capricious, as well as a very 

 delicious fruit, and believe horticulturists yet in the 

 dark about its cultivation. I have invested more 

 dollars in pear-culture than I should here like to 

 name. 



Forty years ago, when a lad, in one of my freaks 

 of enterprise, I went to Detroit, and was then 

 strongly impressed with the strength and grandeur 

 of the old pear trees standing on both sides of the 

 river. Six years ago I was again there, and thought 

 I would examine the condition of those trees. The 

 land where they grew was a heavy clay, and be- 

 longs to the Onondaga salt group. I drove up the 

 river several miles to Lake St. Clair, and found 

 these trees and orchards aU along the bank of the 

 river, which was about forty feet above the water. 



These trees, which were probably ]>lanted about 

 the time of the settlement of the State, in 1V60, 

 must now be nearly one hundred years old. Many 

 of them are ti-om fifty to sixty feet high, and large 

 and symmetrical in their proportions. Thus these 

 pear trees have flourished, while in the hands of the 

 uncultivated French settlers of that district, who 

 are nearly as wild as savages. 



I went up to a hut, and found there an old French 

 woman, who could not speak English, and a boy, by 

 whom I conversed*with her. These trees, she said, 

 had been about the same size as long as she could 

 remember, and thought that when she was young, 

 there were more trees than at that time. The old 

 woman could not teU her age, but I should judge 

 she was about eighty years old. 



Sottie of the trees stood in lines, but through 

 others no rows could be traced. It apjjcared as if 



