GRAPE 



GRAPE 



673 



9o8. A vineyard in its first summer. 



wire fence, as shown in Fig. 969; but the Kniffin system 

 i omits the bottom wire. 



The vineyardists of the Chautauqua Grape belt have 

 developed a mode of pruning and training of Grapes 

 'which has many features peculiar to that district. The 

 trellis is made of two wires, of No. 9 or No. 10 gauge, 

 >and chestnut posts. The posts are from 6 to 8 feet in 

 i length, and cost 1 cent per lineal foot at the railroad 

 "station. In later years, since experience has shown how 

 limportant air and sunshine are in ripening the fruit, 

 8-foot posts are most commonly used. Grape posts 

 'should be somewhat heavier than those commonly used 

 ifor wire fence from one-third to one-half larger and 

 !the heaviest should be sorted out for the end posts, for 

 these bear the strain of the wire. An experienced 

 fanner need not be told that they should be sharpened 

 | with a true lead-pencil taper, excepting the crooked 

 ones, which should be so beveled as to counteract the 

 rcrook in driving. 



The usual distance apart for the posts in the row of 

 I Grapes is one post to every three vines, or, in other 

 r words, 27 feet, and for ease in stretching the wire, they 

 r should be in as straight a line as possible. The posts 

 are driven, but a hole should first be made by an unusu- 

 ally large crowbar with a bulb near the lower end. 

 .'After the posts are stuck into the holes, they are most 

 i;20nveniently driven by the operator standing in a wagon 

 which is hauled through the row by a horse. A fair 

 rweight of maul is 12 pounds, and it requires a good man 

 (to swing one of that size all day. Iron mauls are com- 

 monly used because they are the cheapest, but one with 

 an iron shell filled with wood "brooms " or frays the top 

 r 3f the post less than the iron maul. Eighteen inches is 

 i-a fair depth to drive the posts on most soils. If the pro- 

 rprietor delegates the driving to another man, he would 

 llbetter direct that 20 to 22 inches be the proper depth, 

 ifor to the man swinging the maul the post seems deeper 

 than it really is. 



A vineyard should have a break or an alley at right 

 wangles to the rows as often as every 50 Grape vines, for 

 .the purpose of dumping Grape brush and shortening 

 [the trip when hauling fruit. If the vineyard is in fair 

 thrift, longer rows will give so much brush as to be in- 

 convenient in hauling out. 



i The end posts should not only be the largest of the 

 'lot, but should also be well braced. The most common 

 ['mode is the "hypotenuse brace," consisting of a stiff 

 irail or a 4x4 scantling 12 feet long, with one end 

 notched into the post about midway between the two 

 ; wires, and the other end resting on the ground against 

 a 2-foot peg of about the same size as the end post. 



The wires (two wires in the Chautauqua trellis) 



should be strung on the windward side 

 of the post; that is, on the side from which 

 the prevailing winds come. This is very 

 important when the wind is blowing at 30 

 to 40 miles an hour, and the vines have 

 sails of many square feet of foliage, and 

 perhaps three and four tons of fruit per 

 acre. The staples should be of the same 

 gauge of wire as that used in barbed wire 

 fences, but about one-half inch longer, un- 

 less the Grape posts should be of hard 

 wood, like locust ; then fence staples will 

 be long enough. The bottom trellis wire 

 is usually placed from 28 to 32 inches 

 from the ground. Owing to the arm sys- 

 tem of pruning in the Chautauqua Grape 

 belt, the height of the lower trellis wire 

 is permanent. The upper trellis wire is, 

 in many instances, raised as the vineyard 

 comes to maturity. The first year of fruit- 

 ing it may not be more than 24 inches 

 above the lower wire, and year by year be 

 raised to 30 and 32 inches. It is not advis- 

 able to go more than 36 inches apart with- 

 out putting in a middle or third wire. 

 Each spring many of the posts will sag, 

 and the upper wire will be slack, and many 

 of the braces will be out of place. All of 

 these faults should be corrected just be- 

 fore tying up the canes in spring. 



A large part of the pruning is done in the 

 winter months some beginning in the fall soon after the 

 crop is harvested. Two grades of labor can be employed 

 in this operation the skilled and the unskilled. The 

 man of skill, or the expert, goes ahead and blocks out. 

 He stands in front of a vine of far more tangled brush 

 than that seen in Fig. 962, and, at a glance, tells by a 

 judgment ripened by much observation, just how many 

 buds are required to ballast and not over-ballast the 

 vine for another year. As the expert stands before the 

 vine making the estimate, he might be likened to a man 

 weighing a ham with steelyards, pushing the weight 

 backward and forward, notch by notch, finding the point 

 of balance. The expert, with his pruning shears, makes 

 a dive here and a lunge there, a clip at the bottom and 

 a snip at the top, and with a few more seemingly wild 

 passes all wood is severed from the bearing vine, but 

 the number of buds desired to give fruit another year 

 are left. The unskilled help, who receives possibly a 

 dollar a day less than the expert, follows the expert, 

 cutting the tendrils and other parts of the vine that are 

 attached to anything but the trellis. The next process 

 is "stripping" the brush, and it is one involving brute 

 force, ragged clothes and leather mittens. If the laborer 



969. Illustrating the bracing of the end post 

 in a fence or trellis. 



does not put on a ragged suit, he will be apt to have 

 one before he is done with his job. There is a little 

 knack even in doing this work to the best advantage. 

 The dismembered vines still htng to the upper trellis 

 and often cling with considerable tenacity, and a par- 

 ticular jerk or yank, more easily demonstrated than de- 



