136 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



bunch and berry and do not mature as well as under the other 

 drooping methods of training. 



The Y-trunk Kniffin. 



Still another modification of the Kniffin method is one in 

 which a crotch or Y is made in the trunk midway between the 

 ground and the lower wire. The theory on which this method 

 is founded is that sap for the lower canes is better supplied 

 than in a straight or continuous trunk and that the lower canes 

 thus become as productive as those on the upper wire. The 

 theory is probably wrong but is accepted by many notwithstand- 

 ing. The methods of pruning, renewing fruiting-wood and tying 

 are the same as in the Single-stem Kniffin, except, of course, 

 that each stem supports two canes and two spurs. This method 

 was in somewhat common use some years ago in parts of 

 western New York but is now disappearing. 



The Munson method. 



An ingenious modification of the Kniffin principle was 

 devised by Elbert Wakeman, Oyster Bay, Long Island, and 

 afterwards improved and brought into prominence by the late 

 T. V. Munson of Denison, Texas ; it is now much used in 

 southern vineyards. The method is described as follows by 

 Munson : 1 



"The posts should be of some durable strong wood, such as 

 Bois d'Arc (Osage), Cedar, heartwood of Catalpa, Black 

 Locust or White Oak. The end posts of every row should 

 be large and strong and be set three and one-half or four feet 

 in the ground and well tamped. The intermediate posts, 

 which may be much lighter than the end posts, should be six 

 and one-half or seven feet long and set two to two and one- 

 half feet in the ground, with twenty-four feet spaces between 



1 Munson, T. V. Foundations of American Grape Culture: 224-227. 

 1909. 



