Summer Care of Vines. 305 
sand, free on board cars in the redwood regions in Souoma and 
Santa Cruz Counties. 
Vines are tied with “grape twine,” old cable (bought at the 
junk shops in San Francisco), with wire, with the tough leaves 
of the New Zealand Hax, and with withes of ozer willow. Both 
of the last-named materials are now grown for home use by. 
many vineyardists. Professor Husmann strongly commends 
No. 16 annealed galvanized wire for making the upper ties of 
young vine stumps to stakes, and uses the other materials for 
the lower ties and for fastening up growing canes. 
Grape-vines should be tied tightly to the stake. By 
“tightly” is meant tight enough to prevent a chafing motion. 
without compressing the cane. The object of tying up vin - 
to prevent their being blown about by the wind and the break- 
ing of the canes. Some, however, tie loosely, and are careful to 
have the vine on the leeward side of the stake. Split stakes 
should have the corners rounded to prevent chafing of canes. 
SUMMER PRUNING AND SUCKERING. 
Summer pruning or topping of vines is usually practised. 
Some follow the pinching process, by which the terminal of the 
growing cane is nipped off with the thumb and finger when it 
has grown out about two feet. Others wait longer and then 
slash off the ends of the canes with a sickle. The tendency is to 
leave summer pruning until too late and to slash off wood idis- 
criminately, to the injury of the vine. Summer pruning, if done 
early enough, and this would be while the growth is still soft at 
the point of removal, will induce the growth of laterals and will 
shade and improve the fruit, and at the same time thicken the 
growth of the main cane and strengthen its connection with the 
spur. Slashing of canes too late in the s.ason deprives the fruit 
of the service of enough leaf surface for the elaboration of the 
sap, often seriously checks the growth of the vine, and in hot 
regions induces sunburn. The first summer pruning should be 
done soon after the bloom. The second could take place when- 
ever the canes or laterals extend beyond the length necessary 
to shade the grapes. 
Suckering is an important process and usually has to be at- 
tended to at least twice in the season. It consists in removing 
all shoots from old wood which are not provided for at the pre- 
vious winter pruning. The growth of these suckers takes sap 
which should go to the other canes. All such shoots should be 
rubbed or pulled off while they are still soft; if a sucker puts out 
at a point where it would be desirable to have a spur to balance 
the head of the vine, it should of course be allowed to grow, to 
be cut back to two buds the following winter. By such selection 
of suckers new spurs are secured to replace old and failing ones. 
