213 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
trained permanently to the bottom slat or wire ot 
the trellis. From these horizontals, perpendica 
lar shoots are allowed to grow, aV first two feet 
apart, to form the bearing branches, a, a, a. While 
these are producing a crop, new shoots, shown 
by the dotted lines, b, b, b, are allowed to grow 
mid-way between them which in turn produce a 
crop and are cut away. 
In training over an arbor, the first or third 
modes may be adopted, but the side branches 
should not be allowed to ramble at pleasure, as is 
too frequently the case, completely matting the 
whole upper surface. 
* - --— - . 
Lead Wire for Tying Vines, &c- 
This is new to us, and it strikes us as being 
decidedly useful. It is very readily bent to any 
desired shape, and easily tied with the fingers ; 
and, being unelastic, it remains in whatever posi¬ 
tion it is placed. When put around a vine or 
branch, it yields to any irregularities of the sur¬ 
face, and will not cut into the bark like the more 
inflexible copper or iron wire. Another import¬ 
ant thing is its cheapness. We bought a small 
quantity of No. 16 at 20 cents a pound, retail; 
the price by the large quantity is much less. The 
retail price of the same No. of copper wire, is 
about 60 cents per pound. Our No. 16 measures 
40 feet to the pound—a much smaller size would 
answer for most purposes. We are not aware 
who manufactures this lead wire, but it is for sale 
at the agricultural warehouses and stores in this 
city, and we presume it will soon be on sale gener¬ 
ally. 
- (frttn --#-«s»-- 
Training the Grape. 
We shall not now go into a lengthy discussion 
ef the culture or training of the grape. An elab¬ 
orate series on these topics extended through the 
entire volume of last year, and this subject will 
receive future attention. We now propose to 
show a few of the most approved methods of train¬ 
ing the vine to induce fruitfulness , and at the 
same time keep it within convenient reach. 
The novice at grape growing, looking upon the 
lengthy vine in its wild state striving to overtop 
the tallest forest trees, is too much inclined to al¬ 
low it the “ largest liberty,” and he almost scrup¬ 
ulously avoids cutting back. Not so with the ex¬ 
perienced and successful vine grower, whose aim 
is to secure fruit rather than wood. 
The engraving, fig. 1, shows a method of low 
training, so as evenly to distribute the bunches and 
render the management easy and convenient. 
This vine occupies a space of only four feet high 
and three feet wide, and according to a corres¬ 
pondent of the Horticulturist, it ripened sixty-sev¬ 
en bunches of fruit in a season. If allowed to ex¬ 
tend to about six feet in bight and four feet in 
width it would give a good sized vine, capable of 
producing a large number of bunches. Three 
stakes, about two feet distant from each other, 
may be used singly as in the figure, or it may be 
a continuous trellis. For vineyard culture we 
would run the rows north and south, eight feet 
apart, setting the vines six feet distant in the 
row, training to a trellis of this kind six feet in 
hight. They can be worked in one direction by 
the cultivator or harrow, assisted by the hand-hoe. 
Another method, and one quite extensively 
practiced in field culture, is training to a single 
stake. In this mode the vines are planted from 
six to eight feet apart each way, and the culti¬ 
vator or barrow used to work the ground both | 
ways leaving but little for hand-hoes. Two vines 1 
—one of the present and one of the past year’s 
growth—are usually trained to a stake some sev¬ 
en feet in hight. After bearing, the older shoot 
is cut out in the Fall, leaving the new one for 
bearing the next year. A new shoot is trained up 
and the old one, cut away each season, keeping the 
wood young and healthy. 
In our cut opposite, (fig. 
2,) the vine is permitted 
to branch near the root, 
and each division has its 
bearing and new shoot, 
the farmer making a sort 
of circle, slightly com¬ 
pressing the sap vessels 
and throwing the fluids 
into the fruit bunches 
upon the sides. After 
cutting them away in the 
Fall the upright ones are 
curved in the same way, 
and two new shoots are trained up. Thus each 
vine has two bearing branches at all times. 
Still another plan in the renewal system is 
seen at figure 3 below, which we re-introduce for 
illustration. 
Fig. 2. 
The vine is allowed to branch as before and 
Rise and Fall nf Sap. 
The commonly received theory of the ascent 
and descent of sap in trees and plants, is 
now and then combated with earnestness, 
and with some show of learning. We are 
told that there is no evidence of the rise of sap 
to the leaves, of its elaboration there, and its de¬ 
scent to form new wood, bark, leaves and roots. 
The sap, it is asserted, goes directly from the root 
to the part needing it, and there, in the'cells of 
the plant, is assimilated and made a part of the 
growing structure. In proof of this, we are told, 
first, that the presumption is against the long and 
indirect process involved in the rise and fall of 
the sap ; it is absurd to suppose that the juices of 
a tree travel up a certain set of pipes, often a 
hundred feet long, into the air, in order to be 
manufactured into woody substance, and then 
travel down, perhaps the same distance, in order 
to feed a branch near the ground. It is more con¬ 
sistent to suppose that Nature takes the shortest 
road to accomplish her ends. Then, we are re¬ 
ferred to the following experiment of a French 
chemist, as a settler : A blood beet was grafted 
upon a white one, and each part, in growing, re¬ 
tained its respective color. “ Now,” says Parlez- 
vous, “ if the sap descended from the leaves of the 
blood beet into the fleshy part of the white, the 
latter would have been colored, and the red 
would have overgrown the white”. And Brother 
Jonathon adds : “ If the sap is elaborated in the 
leaves and descends, why does not the wood of 
a graft grow over the wood of the stock below 
it 1” 
But without dwelling longer on the aspects ot • 
the new system, we will briefly state the current 
doctrine of vegetable growth, and then leave our 
readers to judge between them. We shall have 
accomplished a useful purpose if we excite om 
youthful reader- to habits of observation. It will 
