6i6 



THAT LITTTLE CURL. 



advise to top their Le Contes and Kieffers, as, with all 

 the light before me, I see only advantages in the 

 practice. 



At the winter's pruning there are always some water 

 sprouts, weak or interfering branches to take off. but 

 this should be done prudently, as the body and large 

 limbs must not be too much exposed to the direct rays 

 of the sun ; at the same time the air and sunlight should 

 be permitted to penetrate among the branches. 



Something can be gained by passing among the young 

 trees in spring and summer and rubbing off shoots that 

 are starting where none are wanted, and pinching the 

 terminal buds from branches that are growing too fast. 

 But these trees are impatient of summer pruning, and 

 only a limited amount of the foliage can be removed 



during the growing season without doing more harm 

 than good. 



The Garber and Smith's hybrids have the same habit 

 of growth as the Le Conte and Kieffer, and require 

 similar treatment ; so also the Chinese and Japanese 

 pears are ambitious, and when I find them trying to get 

 up in the world too fast or too high, I take the top of 

 their heads off, thus curbing their ambition and improv- 

 ing their appearance. 



It must be remembered that this class of pear trees 

 with us, are either on their own roots (grown from cut- 

 tings) or grafted on other roots of the same race, and 

 the trees grow larger and taller than they do when 

 grafted on French or American grown seedlings. 



Tlioniasville, Ga. Wm. Jennings. 



THAT LITTLE CURL. 



'OT the one on the baby's forehead 

 or the curl on the lip of smiling 

 beauty, but the one that fastens 

 the grape vine to the branch of 

 a tree. What I am aiming at 

 will be best comprehended by 

 saying there lies before me a 

 cane cut from a grape vine 

 about two feet long, with six fine clusters of grapes 

 weighing three pounds. But what of that ? Is it any- 

 thing unusual ? Yes. I have seen thousands of 

 acres of grape vines, but this is the first time I have 

 ever seen six clusters of grapes grown upon one 

 cane. Tvvo to three clusters are common ; some- 

 times there are four, and occasionally five upon I', 

 riparia vines, but six good-sized clusters on one 

 cane is phenomenal. In this case two or three of 

 the curls or tendrils have been manipulated so as 

 to become converted into additional clusters of 

 grapes instead of tendrils. The economy of this 

 will at once be apparent. 



But the reasons for the increase of the crop is the 

 question of significance. For all will remember what is 

 said of him who caused two blades of grass to grow 

 where but one grew before. It would require a whole 

 volume to make this fully apparent, but I hope to con- 

 dense the matter so that it may be comprehended in a 

 single short article. 



It all arises out of the great fact that the vine has 

 been a climbing plant, dependent upon some other 

 plant for its support, for perhaps a million or more 

 years. Its remains are found in the rocks of the plei- 

 ocene, or later tertiary period, both in Europe and 

 America. The curl or tendril is the means used by the 

 plant for climbing trees and shrubs. It also utilizes its 

 lower tendrils for thyrses or flower stalks, and here is 

 a fact of the utmost importance to the practical vine- 

 yardist. These may, in the plant's economies, be used 



as tendrils for support in climbing forest trees, as under 

 natural and wild conditions. Or they may be converted 

 into clusters of fruit in the vineyard, according to the 

 manner in which the vine is handled. It is all a matter 

 of pinching instead of pruning. "There is a time and 

 tide in the affairs of men, which taken at its flood, leads 

 on to fortune." So there is a time and tide in pruning, 

 which also leads to fortune. But this time is not after 

 the canes are two-thirds grown or of full length. The 

 pinching must be done in early spring, and not in the 

 summer. Different species of vines require different 

 lengths of cane and more or less buds, according to 

 their different habits of growth. It is this early pinch- 

 ing that changes the nature and tendency to climb and 

 directs the forces of the plant to increase fruit produc- 

 tion, fruit instead of wood growth. 



In varieties of moderate growth, this early pinching is 

 often all the pruning required ; but in the case of vigorous 

 sorts the laterals, as they start, should also be pinched 

 first to one leaf and sometimes to a second. Feeble 

 vines should not be spring or summer pruned ; but use- 

 less canes should be pinched or broken out on all vines 

 so as to concentrate the growth in the parts where it is 

 needed. 



The correct theory seems to be that the primary ob- 

 ject of the vine is to grow seed to perpetuate the species, 

 and in order to do this it must grow fruit. But in its 

 wild condition it had to surmount some tree or other 

 object to reach the sunlight, where alone fruit could be 

 developed, and often this secondary object and condi- 

 tion defeated to a greater or less extent the primary ob- 

 ject. Now in this early spring pruning we defeat the 

 second or acquired habit and turn the plant's forces and 

 energies into the production of fruit, its primary object. 



The first thing, then, to be done in the spring is to 

 break off all unnecessary shoots when they are, say, six 

 to ten inches long. Then if the vine is feeble, let all 

 the rest grow ; if it is a moderate grower and belongs to 

 V. vinifera, V. Labnisca or V. Lincecumii and some 

 other species, pinch the canes at the end of the third or 



