32 



THE FARM. 



much stronger shoot will come out; and, when the leaves are off in the 

 fall, this shoot will be eight or ten feet long, having been tied to a stake 

 as it rose, and will present what is described in Fig. 1. You must 



make your trellis, that is, put in your upright locust bars to tie the next 

 summer's shoots to. 



Four wires should run along the face of these posts, one the first one 

 foot and a half from the ground ; the others one foot apart. They may 

 be fastened to the posts, which may be sixteen feet apart, by staples or 

 large nails. These wires furnish admirable supports for the side-spurs, 

 and are very quickly and cheaply applied. You will want eight shoots 

 to come out to run horizontally, to be tied to these bars. You must now 

 then, in winter, cut off your vines, leaving eight buds or joints, as at a 

 fig. 1. During summer eight shoots will come, and, as they proceed on, 

 they must be tied with matting, or something soft, to the bars. The 

 whole vine, both ways included, is supposed to go sixteen feet ; but if your 

 tillage be good, it will go much furtier, and then the ends must be cut 

 off in winter. Now, then, winter presents you your vine, as in fig. 2 ; 

 YOU must prune, which is the all-important part of the business. Ob- 

 serve and bear in mind, that little or no fruit ever comes on a grape- 

 vine, except on young shoots that come out of wood of the last year. 

 All the four last years' shoots that you find would send out bearers, but 

 if you suffer that, you will have a great parcel of small wood, and little 

 or no fruit next year. Therefore, cut off four of the last year's shoots, 

 as may be seen at b, fig. 3, leaving only one bud. The four other 

 shoots will send out a shoot from every one of their buds, and if the 

 vine be strong, there will be two bunches of grapes on each of these 

 young shoots ; and as the last year's shoots are supposed to be each 

 eight feet long, and as there generally is a bud at or about every half 

 foot, every last year's shoot will produce thirty-two bunches of grapes ; 



