294 Culture of the Grape m Cities. 



CULTURE OF THE GRAPE IN CITIES. 



(Concluded.) 



Having in the March number shown some of the advantages possessed 

 by city lots in the cultivation of the grape, and sketched out a mode by 

 which a few vines may be grown upon a trellis of very small dimensions, 

 it was suggested that the plan, with some modification of detail, was ap- 

 plicable to spaces of greater extent. 



The writer now proceeds to develop this branch of the subject, and to 

 show how a dozen vines may be planted in a border thirty feet long, and 

 from two to five feet wide, and trained to cover a trellis of equal length. 

 Having put the ground in complete order, as previously suggested, and 

 procured a supply of first-class vines, beginning at, say, the left-hand end, 

 measure off two and a half feet, and plant a vine ; and so proceed with 

 the twelve, preserving an equal distance from vine to vine. These vines, 

 arranged in four courses, are in due season to occupy portions of the trellis 

 ten feet in length by two feet in height. The first and second seasons, their 

 progress will be leisurely ; and not until the third year can they take posses- 

 sion, even in part, of their destined spaces on the trellis, or give an earnest 

 of the good things in store ; nor, with all due regard to the anxious expec- 

 tancy of the owner, can they under five years be judiciously permitted to 

 assume their full proportions. But all these points, as well as the prepara- 

 tion of the border and the culture of the vines, have been discussed in the 

 previous article, and need not be treated again. 



The vines having been planted as directed, let us now turn to the illus- 

 tration, and see how they are to be trained. 



Vines numbered two, six, and ten, it will be seen, occupy the lowest 

 course on the trellis. They grow perpendicularly from the ground, and 

 divide, at the height of a foot, into what are sometimes inaccurately called 

 bearing-arms, as these arms bear only the young canes on which the fruit 

 is grown, and which are to be cut back every winter. About ten buds are 

 the due allowance for each arm when fully developed ; and these buds 

 should severally expand into sturdy canes, attaining, unless pinched in, a 

 height of five or ten feet, and yielding about three bunches of fruit each. 



