164 THE GRAPE CULTUEIST. 



It was, until destroyed, as shown in the engraving, 

 and the fruit not only improved in size and flavor, but 

 it adhered so well to the stem, that I have kept it for 

 two months after picking, and still the berries would 

 not fall from the bunch if handled carefully. I do not 

 attribute the improvement in the fruit entirely to the 

 horizontal arms, but only in part ; for, without doubt, 

 the spur pruning and the close pinching of the young 

 shoots assist very much in the development of the fruit. 

 The method used to obtain these arms was as follows : 



The season before I attempted to train it I cut the 

 whole vine back to within about three feet of the ground, 

 and let it produce new shoots from whatever part they 

 happened to come. It being an old, untrained vine, as 

 I have stated, it produced several very strong young 

 canes, and I cut away all but four ; the two upper ones 

 started about three feet from the ground ; these I cut 

 off to four feet, and laid them down horizontally ; they 

 reached to A, A. One of the two lower canes sprung 

 from the old stem, about one foot from the ground, and 

 just where it was wanted for the lower arm, but there 

 was no young cane opposite to form the other. There 

 was, however, one that came out from near the roots, 

 and this was used for the other lower arm, by twisting it 

 around behind the old stem, and bringing it down oppo- 

 site the first arm ; the two arms were then cut off at A, A. 

 The lower arms were trained on the same level, although 

 one of them came out a foot or more below the other. 

 This makes no difference, except in appearance, as it 

 does not matter whether the arms start from buds nearly 

 opposite or not ; all that is requisite is to bring them to 

 nearly the same height before they are allowed to pro- 

 duce leaves or fruit. The next season the two end canes 

 were allowed to grow long enough to lay down and 

 extend the arms to their full length. In selecting the 

 buds for upright canes, I reserved some of those on the 



