52 



TRELLIS PLAN. 



All farmers understand perfectly the reason that fifty plants of corn in a hill wiL 

 not all taken together bear a single ear. It is precisely for the same reason that grape 

 vines allowed to run at random, as shown in Fig. 34, bear but very few grapes, and as 

 poor and sour as they are few, and as green and unripe as they are sour * • Such grapes 

 will not keep well into winter, as the plump, rich and ripened bunches of •well-managed 

 vines. Fig. 35 is about a fair representation of the .bunches which grow among the 

 dense mass of brush shown in Fig. 34. Fig. 36 is a good, well-grown and well-ripened 

 bunch, such as any man ought to grow who plants a vine. 



Fig. 35. 



Fig. 36. 



Fig. 34. 



There are many modes for pruning. Books 011 the grape describe so many that be- 

 ginners are bewildered and confused. It makes very little difference how they are 

 pruned, provided three main requisites are observed. 1. To cut back the vine early in 

 Spring, or late in Autumn, 1 so as to allow strong shoots to spring up and make a stoijt 

 and healthy growth. 2. To thin out, as soon as they start, all unnecessary shoots, so 

 as to leave the strong bearing shoots about ten inches or a foot apart— then they won't 

 crowd and dwarf eacluother. 3. Never let the shoots overbear. Many persons injure 

 or destroy fine vines by allowing too heavy a crop, because they like to tell a big story 

 how much their vines bore. 



Fig. 37. 



The fruit shown in Fig. 37 is the fan training, and although hardly ever recommended 

 in publications, is a very good way, because if a shoot does not happen to start straight, 

 or grow well exactly where wanted, the others may be moved a little, bo that all the 

 shoots may be distributed about a foot apart. Remember, however, to cut back every 

 year, so that these shoots, or at least the principal portion of them, may be fresh and 

 new. Let the ends of these shoots grow as far as the trellis will allow, because plenty 

 of good, broad, well-developed leaves will make good grapes on the Bhoots near the 

 base. Towards the end of Summer the parts above the trellis may be nipped off with 

 the thumb and finger, so as not to grow too long. Fig. 38 represents the horizontal 

 method, which is different in appearance, but under the same general rules of man- 

 agement. Allow new shoots to grow out half-way between the bearing perpendicular 

 branches, and in the fall cut out these bearing branches — say just above the loweBt eye 



• AH these figures are represented bare of leaveB to show tbe ihatie better. 



