GRAPE. 183 



put our ideas in a tangible form, we will begin with the young 

 plant. As above stated, cut it to within two eyes from the 

 ground, from which allow one shoot to grow for the first sea- 

 son, and now call it a plant one year old ; if the soil is in good 

 order it will be fifteen feet long. In November, or before 

 February, cut that shoot to about two feet from the ground, 

 and allow three shoots to grow. They will each attain fifteen 

 to twenty feet. It is now two years old. About the same 

 period of the season lay the two lowest of these shoots hori- 

 zontally and cut them to about twenty inches from the main 

 stem ; the most upright, cut at about two feet from the stem and 

 allow the plant to make fruit this (the third) year. Six bunches 

 will be quite enough. The plant being now formed, and hav- 

 ing made, in the fourth season, a quantity of branches all cov- 

 ered with fruit, it is advisable to take only one bunch ofi" each, 

 and never take more than two. Leading branches will be re- 

 quired ^or the future plant. These may extend to fill up any 

 given space, but all others must be topped two eyes beyond 

 the fruit ; that is, leave on two leaves nearer the extremity of 

 the shoot than the bunches hang. This topping should be 

 performed early in June, and when they make fresh shoots 

 top them again and again. The leading shoots must also be 

 topped as soon as they are at their required length. Where 

 vines are needed to cover high arbors, or reach the top of 

 dwellings, the shoots in the first and second year may be left 

 from six to ten feet long. 



Slimmer Pruning is generally very injudiciously performed. 

 The vines are allowed to grow in every form till July or Au- 

 gust, when they are thinned out and deprived of a great deal 

 of young wood and foliage, at the very time the plants require 

 to have it. Go over the vines in May and deprive them of 

 all the branches that crowd each other ; six inches to twelve 

 apart is proper distance to lay in young wood ; rub off" all 

 others, using only the finger and thumb in the operation ; tio 

 in the shoots as they advance, and top them as soon as they 



