Wild Fruits of Tennessee 75 



loose soil. Leave from six to eight inches of the end of the vine 

 exposed to the air. By fall, at all joints, roots will have appeared 

 and the layer may be cut from the parent vine and transplanted. 

 These should by all means be transplanted in early fall, and if they 

 are set for an arbor, they should be set from 30 to 35 feet apart. 

 If they are planted for trellis training, the rows should be twelve 

 feet or a little more apart and the plants set about 30 feet apart in 

 the row. It will thus be seen that only a very few plants will be 

 required to set an acre. The newly set vines should be pruned back 

 so that only about 6 inches is left in the soil and about 5 inches on 

 the outside. It should be born in mind that as the muscadine favors 

 soil well supplied with moisture, that a mulch of some kind, espec- 

 ially of decaying leaves, will make plants more vigorous as well as 

 productive. They are fast growers and require much room. In the 

 after pruning of the muscadine, the proper time for the work is 

 during the months of October and November. They seem to be 

 more inclined to bleed than other varieties and any pruning given 

 in other months causes a loss of vitality through the bleeding pro- 

 cess, which requires months for the weakened plant to regain. They 

 should never be permitted to grow in a mass, but should be kept 

 pruned so the vines may have plenty of room, sunshine, and air. 

 This insures a big crop of large fruit. 



Why Some Vines Do Not Fruit. 



On many farms as well as in the forest, are to be found fine 

 healthy vines, which bloom, but never fruit. Owners as a general 

 rule do not understand this apparent mystery. It should be borne 

 in mind that all fruiting varieties of the rotundifolia or muscadine 

 grape are imperfect bloomers. This necessitates the planting of 

 staminate varieties of the same species nearby for fertilization. One 

 staminate vine will produce enough pollen to perfectly fertilize 

 eight bearing or pistillate vines. 



The muscadine grape certainly merits attention. A very few peo- 

 ple of late years have realized its value, and are giving it cultural 

 attention. Its habit of being a regular bearer, large fruit, of pecu- 

 liar but pleasant flavor, merits for it a permanent place on every 

 farm. It is not at all improbable that it will work its way more 

 prominently into the channels of commerce in the future. 



