27 
briefly discussed and the reader is advised to choose the one which 
bests suits his own mind as he would choose a style of hat. 
The Kniffen /System. — This system is the popular style of training 
grapes in the vineyards of the Hudson River Valley. It takes its 
name from the originator, William Knifi'en, who, in the middle of 
the last century, had some vines growing near an apple tree, a limb 
of which was broken by accident so that a portion of a vine was 
crushed. His vines were undoubtedly trained by the old horizontal 
arm system with upright canes, but w 7 hen the fruit ripened he dis- 
covered that the best fruit was on the portion of vine that was 
crushed by the accident. He reasoned from this that drooping 
canes bear better fruit than upright canes, and subsequently devel 
oped the system which bears his name. 
A single strong cane is carried to the upper wire of the trellis, from 
there two side canes are carried along the wire, one in each direction. 
In the same manner side canes are laid along the lower wire. The 
arms on the upper wire are longer than those on the lower wire for 
the strength of the vine goes mainly to the top. The bearing canes 
from these arms are allowed to droop as they will without tying. 
At the subsequent pruning all the wood is cut awa} r except one 
strong young cane at each of the four spurs on the upright. These 
canes are shortened to the proper length and tied to their respective 
wires. In this way the arms are renewed each year and only the 
upright cane is permanent. The dotted lines in Figure 8, show the 
position of the fruit bearing canes in the summer. Of course when 
these canes are but a foot long they are upright, but they droop as 
they lengthen and the fruit gets heavy. 
Strong growing varieties of grape are well suited to this system 
of training, but the Aveaker varieties, like the Delaware, do better 
with shorter upright permanent canes. 
The High Renewal System.. — In the lake region of Western New 
York the favorite style of training is that known as the High Re- 
newal System. In this system the first cane of the young plant is 
headed at a height somewhere between 20 and 30 inches, and two* 
arms are subsequently laid upon the first wire from this point. The 
higher point is better than the lower because the vine will the better 
escape injury from the implements used in cultivation. At the next 
pruning the arms are cut to spurs of six or eight buds. The caues 
from these buds will be tied to the second wire when they are long 
enough. Some of them may reach the third wire before the end of 
the season. When this vine is pruned, after the foliage has dropped, 
the side arms are cut away almost to the fork with all their growth 
of new canes except the strongest near the base of each arm. See 
Figure 9. When the tying is done the following spring, these chosen 
