260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
The Grape Vine— How it Grows and What 
to Do with it— 6& Article. 
Almost every yard or garden in the suburbs 
of our cities and towns has a grape vine, if no 
other fruit-bearing plant, and every year thou- 
sands of vines are planted on this small scale, 
one or two in a place. Amateur gardeners are 
impatient, and will start with large plants, and 
we have seen this spring numbers of men taking 
home vines that were fit only for the brush heap. 
These vines are set, and a jobbing gardener 
comes each spring to " prune." The man is 
paid to prune, and is, of course, bound to cut 
something, which he does without any definite 
notiou of what he is doing. The result is that 
in a few years the vine is mainly a mass of old 
and useless stems, 
and the owner 
likely sends a note 
to the Agricultu- 
rist to ask what 
he shall do with 
it. It is to pre- 
vent such mis- 
takes as these that 
we have written 
a series of articles, 
which are not in- 
tended for viue- 
yardists, but for 
those who have no 
knowledge at all 
upon the subject of planting and growing vines. 
The methods of training already described, as 
well as others to be presented, are all suited to 
garden culture. Circumstances vary much in dif- 
ferent gardens, and it is not always practicable 
for one who would like to grow a vine on the 
Horizontal-Arm plan, to follow the directions 
that have been given. It often occurs that a 
trellis upon a house or fence must be several 
feet above the ground, in which case the arm or 
arms must be started high up on the stem, in- 
stead of within a foot or so of the ground. 
This will be further illustrated when we come 
to the subject of covering screens and arbors. 
A modification of Horizontal-Arm training, 
called Guyot's Sj'stein, is much liked by some 
good cultivators, while others do not approve 
of it. The system, like that described last 
month, requires a vine with two good canes to 
start with ; one of these canes is pruned to two 
buds, and the other is cut off at the leugth of 
two feet, and laid down as a horizontal arm. 
From the arm upright shoots are trained for 
fruiting, and stopped when about two feet high, 
as already explained. The shoots from the two 
buds are trained upright and allowed to grow 
about five feet high, when they are pinched. 
Tiie laterals are kept pinched, and every pains 
taken to secure strong canes. The vine in au- 
tumn will present the appearance given in fig- 
ure 15. In pruning a vine like this the horizon- 
tal arm is cut airay entirely, and the lower of 
the two upright canes bent down to replace it: 
this cane is to be cut of the proper length, which 
the second year may be four feet, and the other 
upright cane cut back to two buds. In this 
system we have one horizontal arm, which is 
renewed each year from an upright cane grown 
for the purpose. This plan, of which a mere 
outline is given, is fully elaborated in Mr. Peter 
B. Mead's work on Grape Culture, from which 
the above illustration is borrowed. In some 
vineyards started on the Horizontal-Arm sys- 
tem, we have seen a sort of compromise between 
it and other plans carried out, until it became 
nearly the old Alternate-Renewal system. In- 
stead of pruning the upright canes on the arm 
back to two buds, (see last month), a portion of 
them are pruned longer or shorter, according to 
their strength, and two, three, or more feet left. 
Tiie nest season these canes are expected to pro- 
duce fruiting shoots along their whole length. 
This breaks up the system, as in cutting back 
these canes after they have fruited, there is no 
certainty of finding a bud to cut to, to renew the 
cane. We have given in these articles only 
the principal modifications of which the Hori- 
zontal-Arm is susceptible, and must leave it to 
notice other and different methods of training. 
A word on the care of vines during the pres- 
ent month. Cultivation must be followed, and 
the soil kept clear of weeds by hand or horse- 
power. Keep the laterals in check, as already 
described in April. This operation, so often 
neglected, is absolutely necessary, in order to 
get a strong cane for future operations. Mildew, 
if it appears, is most successfully treated with 
sulphur, which should be blown upon the vines, 
especially upon the under surface of the leaves, 
by means of a bellows made for the purpose. 
Remove the larger insects by band-picking. 
An insect will often take off the end of a grow- 
ing shoot as neatly as if it were pinched. When 
this occurs, allow the upper lateral to grow and 
prolong the shoot, or remove it altogether, and 
allow the upper bud, which would have other- 
wise remained dormant until next year, to start. 
A New Carriage Gate. 
A gentleman who lives in the upper part of 
X. Y. City has contrived a carriage gate which 
answers his peculiar requirements, and think- 
ing it may be of some use to others, we give an 
illustration and description of it. It would ob- 
struct the sidewalk to have the gate swing out- 
ward, and as the ground immediately within the 
entrance rises, it would not be practicable to 
have it open inward, without making consider- 
able excavation; so in this dilemma he arranged 
it to slide. The gate is made all in one piece, 
well braced, and like a section of picket fence. 
The illustration is taken from the inside of the 
grounds, and shows the gate partly open. The 
gate-way is represented as closed by a well- 
ing back. The opening can all be done with- 
out moving from one spot. The bar, when 
closed, rests upon a post placed to receive it. 
—• — -»— . —. 
The Treatment of "Bedding Plants." 
By "bedding plants" we mean those tender 
things that are put out for the effect they will 
produce in summer. Among these we include 
those valued for their flowers, like the Verbenas, 
as well as those, which, like the variegated Pe- 
largoniums, Cinerarias, and Coleus, are grown 
for their foliage only. Many think that when 
they have set out these plants they have done 
their duty by them. This leads to bad effects, 
and we see miserable attempts at bedding. Ver- 
benas, Ageratums, and all the flowering ones, 
need pegging down, and constant care to make 
them show their best. A daily attention is re- 
quired, and one who wishes to make a show with 
these plants should keep them in good trim. 
Each branch, as soon as it is large enough to be 
blown about, should be held in place by some 
kind of a "peg." A willow twig bent like a 
hair-pin is as good as anything we have tried 
for the purpose. The "foliage plants" gen- 
erally grow lanky and make anything but a de- 
sirable show, all for the want of the knife. Cut 
back freely all the kinds that do not seem dis- 
posed to bush out. Tolerate no Pelargoniums 
(or Geraniums, as some will call them) on stilts. 
Cut back the Coleus, and make it grow broad 
rather than tall. Cinerarias and Centaureas 
are disposed to run to flowers — cut them back. 
Keep all bedding plants under control. If they 
are in a bed upon the lawn, cut those upon the 
edge of the bed back so that the plauts near the 
center will have a fair show. Do not be afraid 
of using the knife freely upon any of them. 
The Effect of the Graft upon the Stock- 
Graft Hybrids. 
CARRIAGE GATE. 
braced bar, which is arranged to swing open 
towards the inside; upon the top of this bar is a 
rail upon which the gate moves by rollers, after 
the manner of a sliding barn door. A piece of 
scantling supported by posts, and bearing a rail, 
is placed to receive the gate when open. This 
gate is very easily opened. It is rolled away from 
the gate-way and the bar is pushed open — the 
bar being so hung that it will require no fasten- 
It has been accepted as a law by horticultur- 
ists, that the graft produces no effect upon the 
stock into which it is inserted, other than, it 
may be, to communicate disease. A number of 
cases have been from time to time observed 
which would go to show that there are excep- 
tions to this rule. In May 
18G7, Meelian gave in the 
Gardeners' Monthly an ac- 
count, with an illustration, 
of a pear which had been 
grafted upon a Mountain 
Ash — which, by the way, 
is not an Ash but a kind 
of Pear. It is a well-at- 
tested fact, that seven 
inches below the junction 
of the two, a pear shoot 
appeared upon the Moun- 
tain Ash stock. Mr. Dar- 
win, in his recent work on 
the Variation of Animals 
and Plants, has brought 
together a number of facts 
of similar import. An- 
other curious point upon which Mr. Darwin 
in this work furnishes strong evidence, is the 
production of graft hybrids. By this is meant 
the commingling of the peculiarities of the stock 
in the graft, manifested in flowers and fruit in- 
termediate in character between the two, after 
the manner of hybrids produced from seeds re- 
sulting from fertilization with foreign pollen. 
Adams' Laburnum, it is pretty well established, 
