MANAGEMENT OF FEUITING VINES. 105 



and two smaller shoots of from two to five feet. 

 The two canes ought next season to produce 3 to 5 

 lbs. of fruit each, and their proper care during the 

 winter is worthy of our best efforts. 



"Winter Protection of the Fruiting Canes. — As 

 the vines have now assumed their permanent form 

 and size (unless it should be deemed advisable after 

 the lapse of a few years to remove each alternate 

 vine and so double the extent of trellis allotted to 

 the remainder), it becomes important to settle upon 

 a systematic course of procedure in order to facilitate 

 our operations, and this remark applies to their pro- 

 tection during winter as well as to every other pro- 

 cess connected with them. Of the advantage, we 

 had almost said necessity, for winter protection there 

 can be no doubt. Some extensive cultivators, at a 

 late meeting of the Western E". Y. Fruit Growers 

 Society stated, that they would have made $100 per 

 day for the time spent in covering their vines if they 

 had done so in the fall of 1858. 



One gentleman asserted that he had lost thousands 

 of dollars by neglecting it — and there is probably no 

 point in the whole range of grape growing upon 

 which cultivators are so thoroughly agreed as this. 

 The mere laying down the vines on the ground, cover- 

 ing them with snow, laying boards or brush upon or 



