166 



THE GRAPE CULTURIST. 



will make no difference in the result whether the sap flows 

 through one or ten feet before it reaches the leaves. 



FOUR TIERS OF ARMS. 



Sometimes it is desirable to fill a certain space which is 

 higher than would be occupied by two tiers of arms ; if so, 

 plant the vines only two feet apart instead of four, and 

 form four tiers in the same way as we formed the two tiers. 

 Or two tiers of arms may be formed from one vine, although 

 it will take a year or two longer than it would to plant 

 more vines, and only take two arms from each one. 



Fig. 58 is a very correct representation of an old Hart- 

 ford Prolific vine, with two tiers of arms from the same 

 vine. The arms are eight feet long, so that the vine covers 

 a space sixteen feet long and only six feet high. There 

 are ten spurs upon each arm, making forty in all, giving 

 eighty upright bearing canes, and it is allowed to bear from 

 two hundred and fifty to three hundred bunches annually. 

 Last season it produced two hundred and fifty-six bunches. 



I have introduced this vine here for two purposes : first, 

 to show how an old vine that has been grown without any 

 system of training may be brought into a good form ; and 

 second, that I may more thoroughly impress upon the mind 

 of the reader the importance of training vines with hori- 

 zontal arms, for the purpose of improving the quality of 

 fruit as weh 1 as controlling the growth of the vine. Hav- 

 ing an old Hartford Prolific vine in my garden, the fruit 

 of which could usually be shaken off so soon as ripe, I 

 thought I would try and see if the arm and spur system 

 would have any effect upon it, and in any degree remedy 

 this defect. 



It is now as shown in the engraving, and the fruit has 

 not only improved in size and flavor, but it adheres so well 

 to the stem, that I have kept it for two months after pick- 

 ing, and still the berries would not fall from the bunch if 



