of the current year from the last year's growth. 

 That if, the buds on last year's shoots will next 

 spring produce the shoots that will bear the fruit. 

 iShoots from the older parts of the tree do not bear 

 IVuit, and the same shoots bear only once. Fig. 2 

 shows a portion of last year's wood with a fruit 

 branch produced from one of its buds. It is impor- 

 tant to understand this well, as it renders the neces- 

 sity for a supply of vigorous young shoots quite 

 obvious. We frequently see the lower parts of the 

 main branches, or frame- work of grape vines, trained 

 on hou.ses or trellises, all destitute of young wood, 

 like the lower parts of neglected peach trees. This 

 wa.s caused by either bad or no pruning. The growth 

 went on mainly at the points, and the lower parts 

 were starved out and the best portions of the vine 

 rendered fruitless. 



Having touched upon these general points, we may 

 take up training and pruning more minutely. First, 

 in regard to trellises. Many people are in the habit 

 of training vines on the walls of houses : but the 

 practice is bad, both for the house and the vine. It 

 is much better to make a trellis that will stand a 

 foot or two from the wall and be attached to it by 

 brackets. Annexed is the figure of one, the principal 



Fig. 3. 



bars or frame work of which are boards three inches 

 wide. and one and a half inches thick nailed together 

 at the angles. This trellis is intended for one vine, 

 and may be of the height of the wall or house it is 

 intended to cover. The vertical bars arc eight in 

 number, to each of which one of the permanent canes 

 or branches of the vine is to be fastened. These are 3 

 feet apart, and between them, in the center, are rods 

 of No. 12 wire, to which the lateral fruit buds may 

 be attached with strings, o'- will attach themselves 

 by the tendrills. The first, or lowest, cross bar may 

 be two or three feet from the ground, as most conve- 

 nient. Rods of wire may also be carried at equal 

 distances between the cross bars, to facilitate the 

 fastening of the lateral shoots. 



The training of a vine on such a trellis as this is 

 a very simple matter, and produces to the sight a 

 most pleasing effect: indeed, it would be a highly 

 ornamental screen for any place where a screen 

 might be wanted, without interfering with cither 

 walls or windows. For garden arbors the same mode 

 of training is equally suitable. 



This form, as will be seen by figure 1, copied from 

 "Allen's Treatise on the Vine," is that of two hori- 



zontal branches, one trained to the right and the othe'" 

 to the left, on the lower bar of the trellis. From these, 

 eight permanent canes or branches are trained on the 

 vertical posts. These are to be furnished all up the 

 sides, at proper distances, with lateral spurs to pro- 

 duce the bearing shoots. To produce and manage a 

 vine in this way, requires some such operations as 

 the following :• — Let us take a young vine as it is 

 usually sent out from the nursery — one, two, or three 

 years old. This will either be a single shoot one 

 and a half to three feet in length, or there may be 

 several branches one to two feet long, as the vigor 

 of the plant may be. If one year old — a single 

 shoot — the plant should be cut back, when p'antcd, 

 to within two eyes of the base ; and if older, with 

 some branches, all the weaker ones of them v. ill be 

 cut clean off, and the strongest one cut br.ck to the 

 last two eyes of the young wood. These vines, then, 

 are all in the same situation, and are planted at the 

 center of the trellis. When they commence grow- 

 ing, all the shoots but one, and that the strongest, 

 are rubbed ofl^, and this single shoot is trained and 

 allowed to grow uninterruptedly till September, when 

 the top may be nipped off to cause the wood to 

 mature and strengthen. Next February this shoot 

 is cut back to within three eyes of its starting point. 

 These eyes will form shoots. The weakest one most 

 be removed in May, and the two strongest carefully 

 tied up and encouraged till September, when they 

 will be topped as before. By this time these shoots 

 will be vigorous and at least ten or twelve leet long, 

 if the vine be healthy and in a good soil. (Close to 

 where we write, a vine of Isabella last season, second 

 after planting, made a strong shoot fifteen feet long.) 

 Up to this time no fruit should be allowed. With 

 these two shoots we commence the frame-work of 

 the vine. At the February pruning, these shoots 

 are cut back to within two or three feet of their 

 base, and are then tied down, one to the right and 

 one to the left, on the first horizontal bar of thn 

 trellis. Each of these will produce two shoots, one 

 to be trained up to the first central post of its division 

 of the trellis, and the other to continue thee.xtension 

 of the vine in a horizontal dii-ection. All the other 

 eyes or buds are cut out at the time of fastening 

 down the branches. During the season, the requisite 

 care will be to keep down all other shoots and to 

 prevent too great a growth of lateral shoots on the 

 young wood. Shoots that are growing in a horizon- 

 tal direction are more disposed to produce lateral 

 shoots than those that have a vertical or natural 

 direction. The February following, tliese vertical 

 shoots and the horizontal ones are cut back in pro- 

 portion to their vigor, say within four to six eyes of 

 the old wood. Each will produce a number of fruit 

 shoots, and two more vertical shoot-s may be raised 

 to the trellis from the horizontal ones, by the same 

 process as the first year. Care inust be taken to 

 carry the leading shoots, for the extension of tlie vine, 

 upward and outward, by the same system, luitil the 

 trellis is covered. The vine must not be overtasked 

 with the production of either too much wood or too 

 much fruit. The success of the training depends 

 upon keeping up a vigorous and tmiform vegetation 

 in all its parts. This is done by following the sug- 

 gestions in the first part of these remarks. 



To continue farther the treatment of the vine in its 

 annual course, would be merely repeating what we 

 have already said. Some people may think that 

 there is too much system about this, and too much 



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