1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



121 



^e ijimgartr. 



vineyard Work for iTlay. 



By the Associate Eiiit >i:. 



In tliis laliliule May is a very busy ijoiilh, so all 

 prcvidus work should have been coui| 1 • 1i d. When 

 the raean temperature has reached abi ut 05 degrees 

 and the new shoots have made six inches growth, 

 the first pinching should commence, and all the 

 leaders should be taken oft" just beyond the last 

 bunch of fruit, leaving one leaf to each bunch. 

 But the shoots from the spurs intended for fruiting 

 the next season should be allowed to grow about 

 twenty inches long, then they should be pinched 

 back to two or three buds, and from these let as 

 man}' laterals grow as are needed for fruiting, they 

 will be found much better than if not stopped. 

 This .subject has been di.scussed elsewhere in the 

 PoMOLOGisT, illustrated by diagrams. 



Keep all the suckers off your vines as fast as the}' 

 start, and stir the ground frequently in dry weather 

 and keep it clear from weeds. The trenches should 

 be filled up as the layers grow, with fine .soil. New 

 vineyards .should be well cultivated, and the vines 

 tied up. Vegetables may be planted between the 

 rows. The grafts should also be examined, to see 

 if any suckers start. If so, dig down and take them 

 off close to the stock, but be careful not to disturb 

 the graft. 



For the horizontal spur .system of training it re- 

 quires the bearing and renewing shoots trained up- 

 right and tied to the trellis as they grow. 



The fan system requires the bearing shoots equal- 

 ly distributed over the trellis, and the renewing 

 canes trained up in the vacant places. 



The bow system requires the bearing cane bent in 

 a bow and tied to the stake, and renewing canes 

 trained upright to renew the bows. 



The spiral system has the bearing canes twisted 

 tight around an upright po.^t, and renewing canes 

 trained upright to replace the spiral each year. 



In all these systems the pinching should be the 

 same as described above. Although we have men- 

 tioned them, we do not recommend any but the lat- 



eral cane horizontal renewal system, described else- 

 wliere. 



If the temperature of May is very high tlie 

 grapes will bloom in the latter part of it, and the 

 laterals will have pushed out at the axils of the 

 leaves. If so, they should be pinched to one leaf 

 each. 



Foreign and Native Grapes. 



BT 8. J. PARKER, M. D., ITHACA, N. T. 



Ed. Pomolooist : In the comparison of the one 

 singfe species of grape with the five or six varie- 

 ties of grapes of the American Continent, we are 

 apt to forget that all is old with the former, and all 

 is almost new and unchanged with our grapes. 

 Yet he who asserts that no improvement has lately 

 been or can be made in the crossing and seeding of 

 foreign varieties, but shows his own ignorance. 

 He, too, who does not get and eat the splendid new 

 foreign grajies, and put them in his glass grapery 

 in place of the older varieties, is equally ignorant 

 and stupid, in my opinion. For example, the 

 words " Black Hamburg " are on the lips of every 

 man, woman and child, as the by-word of foreign 

 excellence. And that grape is an excellent one, 

 yet the Muscat Hamburg, a recent cross of the 

 Muscat of Alexandria and the black Hamburg, is 

 so far in advance of the old Black Hamburg that it 

 ought to drive out two-thirds of our Black Ham- 

 burgs; and it would do so but for the silly stupidity 

 (to use the mildest phrase I can and be decent) of 

 our glass grapery people. This I have a dozen 

 times said in the Coitntry Qcntkmnn and elsewhere, 

 yet I dare say not a dozen vines are changed for it. 

 The world is an old fool (there ! I came near using 

 an appropriate phrase at last) that it wont learn 

 faster. We cling to old things. We learn only by 

 the harelest. I could name a score of recently orig- 

 inated foreign sorts that beat all to pieces the older 

 foreign sorts, yet we must " bray in a mortar " even 

 good men, so dull are they to get these new fruita 

 introduced. 



