Trellis. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Training. 41 



are not durable, and the posts must then be 

 put in much closer. Another mode of making 

 wire trellis (the Fuller plan) is with horizontal 

 bars and perpendicular wires, as shown in a 

 following illustration (Fig. 63). Posts of good, 

 hard, durable wood, 3 inches in diameter and 



mode is apt to crowd foliage and fruit too 

 much ; others therefore use two, and, where 

 timber is plenty, even three stakes, placed 

 around each vine, about ten inches from it, 

 and wind its canes around them spirally 

 until they reach the top. The disadvantage 

 of training on s.takes is, that these soon 

 rot in the ground, and must be almost annu- 

 ally taken out, repointed and driven into the 

 soil, consequently require more labor, and are 

 not as durable as trellis, unless cedar poles, 

 or other very durable timber is used. A very 

 simple combination of the trellis and stake sys- 

 tem (as shown in Fig. 65) is also highly recom- 

 mendable, requiring but one wire for the bear- 

 ing canes and much lighter stakes, which need 



Fig. 63. 



6J to 7 feet long, are placed between the vines, 

 at equal distance from each vine, and in a line 

 with them, 2 feet deep in the ground. When 

 the posts are set, nail on strips about 2J inches 

 wide and 1 inch thick, one strip or bar being 

 placed one foot from the ground, and the other 

 at the top of the posts. Then take No. 16 gal- 

 vanized iron wire and put it on perpendicu- 

 larly, twisting it around the lower and upper 

 bar, at a distance of about 12 inches apart. 

 Galvanized wire is preferable, and as a pound 

 of No. 16 wire gives 102 feet, the additional ex- 

 pense is but very small. This trellis will prob- 

 ably cost less than one with horizontal wires, 

 and is preferred by some. Practical experience, 

 however, speaks in favor of horizontal wires, 

 and a method with only two horizontal wires, 

 the lower about 3 feet high and the upper 

 about 5 feet high, is 

 gaining the good opinion 

 of vineyardists, East and 

 West. A good many 

 grape growers train their 

 vines to stakes, believing 

 it to be cheaper; and the 

 decline in the price Of 

 grapes and wine induces 

 many to adopt the least 

 costly plan. 



This method has also 

 the great advantage of al- 

 lowing us to cultivate, 

 plow and cross-plow the 

 ground in all directions, 

 leaving but little to hoe 

 around the vines. Some 

 use one stake only, as 

 shown in Fig. 64, but with 

 our strong growers this 



Fig. 64. 



Fig. 65. 



not be set as deeply into the ground as where no 

 wire is used to hold them, and will consequent- 

 ly last longer ; but this method does not afford 

 the advantage of cross-plowing. 



To secure this advantage and at the same 

 time to give to our strong growers more space 

 and the benefits of high training, we made a 

 kind of " Arbor Trellis 11 in one of our vineyards 

 (Fig. 66) , the construction of which is more ex- 

 pensive on account of the necessary high posts 

 (of which the end-posts only need be quite 

 strong) and of the wire ; but the productiveness 

 and probable exemption from diseases is also 

 greater in proportion. By this method the 

 ground might also be used for grass culture, and 

 summer-pruning and tying is almost entirely 

 dispensed with. The fruit-gathering is, how- 

 ever, less convenient, and none but quite hardy, 

 vigorous varieties should be thus trained. 



Fig. 66. 



