286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



go on and make some headway in the production of fruit. 

 If the vines were very strong at the time of setting and 

 should make unusual groAvth for two years, a part of them 

 might be allowed to fruit a little the third year, but as a rule 

 they should be treated as described. 



It is necessary- the third season to erect a trellis. I am 

 talking about my system, not about any other man's. Of 

 course, if a person grows his vines under a different system, 

 he will take different means, but under my system, it is nec- 

 essary to erect a trellis the third season. The trellis I have 

 made, as shown on p. 292, is this : — 



The posts are made of two-inch-square chestnut. It is, 

 perhaps, not quite as cheap as unsawn timber, but it is very 

 much handsomer, and if your vineyard is in sight, it will 

 look very much better ; and if it is not in sight, it will be 

 apt to be out of mind ; " out of sight out of mind." You 

 want it in sight. These posts are set six feet apart through 

 the whole vineyard, one post for one vine ; they are set two 

 feet and a half in the earth and five feet and a half out, being 

 eight feet long. My custom is, to set the end post right by 

 the side of the first vine, which makes it nine feet from the 

 next one. The others are six feet apart. I put a brace in 

 at the end, bracing the outside post to the foot of the next 

 one, which brace is set into a little shoulder just sufficient to 

 hold it. Then, upon these posts, wires are stretched. I have 

 used various kinds, but the last was number 15 galvanized 

 iron wire, which I am inclined to think will give me better 

 satisfaction than anything else. The lower wire is placed 

 twenty inches above the ground ; a little higher than I used 

 to put it, for the purpose of keeping the grapes on the lower 

 part of the trellis out of the dirt. A year ago this last au- 

 tumn, there were heavy rains through the month of Septem- 

 ber, that spattered a great deal of soil upon the grapes, and 

 it was very difficult to get it off. It troubled me so much 

 that I decided that the lower wire should be raised to about 

 twenty inches from the ground. The next wire I put fifteen 

 inches above that. You will see the utility of that by and 

 by. The next wire is fourteen inches above the second, and 

 the next one is fifteen inches above that. There are four 

 wires. And here I may say, that any gentleman who is at 



