HARDY GRAPES* 



141 



mometer falls to zero, it is beneficial to lay them down 

 close to the ground and cover them up with rough litter 

 before the approach of severe weather in winter, allowing 

 it to remain on in spring until the buds begin to swell, 

 when the vines are uncovered and tied up to the trellis. 

 If covered in this way they should be pruned before lay- 

 ing down. Pruning may be done at any time from No- 

 vember to March. It is a common belief that grape-vines 

 should be pruned only at certain seasons. The weather 

 must not be too cold, otherwise it is supposed they may 

 be injured if then pruned. Again, they must not be 

 pruned late in the spring, else the sap oozing from the 

 cuts may bleed them to death. Let me say that both 

 these notions are utter nonsense. The pruning of any 

 tree or vine in the coldest weather cannot possibly injure, 

 and the "bleeding" or running of the sap after any or- 

 dinary pruning, can no more hurt the vine than the 

 blood flowing from a pin scratch would weaken a healthy 

 man. This method of covering up the grape-vine is not 

 commonly practised, but we are satisfied that in exposed 

 positions it is well worth the trouble. I have practised 

 it with vines now ten years old, embracing some 20 vari- 

 eties ; my soil is a stiff clay very unsuitable for the grape, 

 yet these vines have kept clear of mildew, when my 

 neighbor's vines a few hundred yards off have been seri- 

 ously injured by it. I have long believed that intense 

 cold, long continued, is hurtful to even such plants as we 

 call hardy, and the wonderful vigor of these old vines, 

 so treated, seems a good evidence of it. 



The litter used in covering, (which has become well- 

 rotted by spring), is spread over the border, acting both 

 as a summer mulch and fertilizer. Mildew is the worst 

 enemy to the vine ; the same remedy we recommend in 

 this book for mildew on roses, will be found equally effi- 

 cacious for the grape. On the large scale dry sulphur is 

 used, blown upon the vines by a bellows for the purpose. 



