60 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



in full bearing, trained fan-shape to a trellis of three wires, 

 will furnish all the fruit that any vine should carry. I would 

 earnestly caution against overbearing all through the life of a 

 grape vine, and especially of young ones the first few 

 years. This is the cause of the failure and early death of 

 nine out of ten vines that break down. One good bunch to a 

 shoot is all that should be left until the vines get strong. 



As to fertilizer, bone and potash will supply all the food a 

 vine requires, and potash is especially important for their 

 health. Where cotton-seed hull ashes or plenty of wood ashes 

 can be had, there is nothing better. As to insects, the 

 most serious enemy to the grape in the South is the leaf 

 roller ; and while he never attacks the smooth, thin leaves of 

 the Vinifera, he rarely allows the woolly leaves of the 

 Labrusca or its hybrids to escape. One spraying with Paris 

 green and a little lime, at the rate of one pound of the green 

 to one hundred or even one hundred and fifty gallons of lime 

 water, when the berries are half grown, will be washed off 

 before the fruit ripens, but will protect entirely until 

 the fruit has been sold, when another will carry the 

 vines through the summer. The birds are the only other 

 enemy, and while there are not so many in Southwest Texas, 

 they are exceedingly destructive everywhere else throughout 

 the South. The very best remedy is to pepper them with peas 

 from a gun, or very fine shot at long range, for a few days, 

 when the fruit begins to ripen. It is astonishing how quickly 

 they will communicate the fact when they are struck. Dead 

 birds, like dead men, tell no tales, but lives ones are quick to 

 do it. However, it is highly probable that birds attack 

 grapes much oftener to quench their thirst than to obtain food, 

 and if shallow vessels of water are placed at intervals 

 throughout the vineyard, the loss of fruit will be very small. 



In marketing the fruit, it should always be gathered in 

 shallow boxes, with cleats on the ends for handles, so they 

 can be piled up on each other, in hauling to the packing 

 house. There it should remain over until the next day, to 

 allow the stems to wilt, so that the bunches will lose their 

 rigidity and pack more closely without bruising. All broken, 



