340 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
Pruning Grape Vines. 
For our readers of several years’ standing, wlio 
have their former volumes to refer to, there 
is no need to say anything on the management 
of the vine. But for those who have them not 
on hand to refer to, and especially for our new 
friends, a word or two may not he amiss, and 
now especially, in this month of November, the 
best season at the North for the annual pruning. 
There are several methods of training now in 
vogue. One of these is the German mode, prac¬ 
ticed in our Western vineyards; according to 
which, one or two canes are trained to a single 
stake, or two stakes, and during the season 
while these canes are bearing fruit, two others 
are being grown for fruit-bearing the following 
year. In the Autumn after these first canes 
have yielded fruit, they are cut down, to give 
place to the second. The following cuts (Figs. 
1 and 2) may illustrate this style of training: 
Fig. 1. 
u, a, a, are the fruit-bearing canes of the pres¬ 
ent year, and b, b , b, are the spurs from which 
canes are to grow for fruit-bearing the next year. 
Mr. Wm. Bright, of Germantown, Pa., has put 
forth a modification of this method, and claims 
for it superiority over all others. He recom¬ 
mends growing only one cane each year, and 
confining it to a stake four or five feet high; and 
lie would grow this cane one year and fruit it 
the next, and so on al¬ 
ternately, as long as the 
vigor of the vine can be 
maintained. As the 
merits of this method 
were pretty well can¬ 
vassed in “ A Talk at 
the Gate,” in our last 
number, we will say no 
more about it at pres¬ 
ent. We question 
whether it will succeed, 
’in the long run, but 
hope it will, for it cer¬ 
tainly has its advantages. 
According to the other leading modes, vines 
are trained to trellises, and are pruned on one of 
two plans, viz.: the renewal , or the spur method. 
By the first, the two-year-old canes having once 
borne fruit, are cut away to allow room for an 
equal number of one-year-old canes to do the 
same thing. And while these latter are fruiting, 
a new set of canes are growing up from the 
bases of those cut away, to bear fruit in their 
turn: and so on from year to year, so renewing 
the wood of the vine every other year. 
By the second method, the old canes are not 
cut away, but shoots on the sides of them are cut 
down every year to one or two strong buds at 
their base. Each plan has its advocates; the 
latter, we judge, is the most commonly practiced. 
The former has several important advantages: 
it brings in, quite often, a large quantity of new 
wood, and enables the gardener to get large 
clusters from the lower half of his trellis—a 
thing seldom done by the other method. 
We will explain each mode quite briefly: 
1. The Renewal.—First Year. —Beginning with 
a young vine, let only one strong 
shoot grow the first year: tie it to a 
stake, and pinch off, during the 
Summer, whatever suckers spring 
up from the roots, and whatever 
laterals push out from the axils of 
the leaves. In the Fall it will pre¬ 
sent the appearance shown at Fig. 3. 
Second Year. —In the Fall (No¬ 
vember,) cut this shoot back to 
three strong buds, and bind it to the ground, and 
cover it lightly with litter or common soil. Next 
Spring, uncover it, about the middle of April, 
tie it again to a stake, and let two of the strong¬ 
est shoots grow, pinching out 
all others, laterals and suckers, 
as seen at Fig. 4. No fruit, of 
course, should be allowed to 
form on the vine this year. 
Third Year. —In November, 
cut back both canes to within 
three feet of the ground, and 
protect them as before during 
Winter. Be careful in binding 
them to the ground, not to 
break the canes or bruise the 
buds. In the Spring build your trellis. Use ce¬ 
dar posts rising six or seven feet above ground, 
and stretch wires from one to the other, at eigh¬ 
teen inches apart; or light bars of wood may be 
nailed on in place of wire. Now, raise up the 
canes, and tie them horizontally to the lower 
bar or wire of the trellis. Let one shoot grow 
up on each side of the central trunk, and one 
Fig. 5. 
from each extremity of the horizontal canes. In 
the Fall, the vine will look something like Fig. 5. 
Fourth Year. —In the Fall of this year, short¬ 
en in the upright canes to about four feet, and 
those on the right and left extremities to within 
about two feet of their last year’s growth. Lay 
down the vine as before, in the Winter. In the 
Spring, tie up the two leading shoots perpen¬ 
dicularly to the trellis, and the others tie down 
to the lower bars, horizontally. During this 
Summer, a few clusters may be allowed to grow 
on the upright canes. Two new upright canes 
should be trained up also, all others being cut 
off as they appear. Shoots should also be 
trained off obliquely from the terminal buds of 
the horizontal branches, as was done last year. 
This is done to extend the vine right and left, 
and to spread it uniformly over the trellis. 
Thus we may proceed from year to year, un¬ 
til the trellis is covered. The vine will then ap¬ 
pear as shown in- Fig. 6. After the vine has 
been brought into this form, all the pruning 
needful will be to cut out each alternate cane 
in the Fall, gathering fruit from the canes of the 
preceding year’s growth. 
II. The Spur Method .—This system may be ap¬ 
plied to a vine which has first been established 
Fig. 7. 
in the other mode; only the canes must not be 
allowed to stand on the trellis nearer together 
than eighteen inches or two feet, thus allowing 
for the growth of spurs or side shoots. Or the 
canes may be trained off obliquely, in a sort of 
fan-shape, like Fig. 7. But however managed, 
the mam branches are not to be cut away, they 
remain permanently from year to year. Shoots 
pushing out from the sides of these permanent 
canes are to be pruned back every Autumn, to 
one or two strong buds near the base of each 
shoot. Fruit bearing branches will start out 
from those spurs. 
Our own experience does not lead us to re¬ 
commend one of these methods to the exclusion 
of the other: we practice both, and secure good 
results from them. Those trained in the spur 
method, are the least difficult to lay down for 
Winter protection, and if a cane becomes in¬ 
jured, its place can easily be supplied. The re¬ 
newal method gives us the finest clusters and 
those most evenly distributed over the trellis. 
Either method wellfollowed out , is a thousand times 
better than the no method so widely prevalent. 
Wild Grape Wine Manufactory. 
From the Boston Cultivator we learn that the 
mammoth wine presses of Messrs. Paige & Co., 
under the Boston City Beservoir were set at 
work about Sept. 20th, or rather later than last 
season, the crop not ripening as early. Grapes 
are likely to be very plenty; one man in Kliode 
Island has contracted with the firm to furnish 
20 tuns. Connecticut and Massachusetts are 
also supplying large quantities. Two years ago, 
no less than sixty tuns of wild grapes were 
made into wine at these presses, and sueli has 
been the demand for “ American grape Wine,” 
that very little of that vintage remains on hand. 
Fruit versus Gold. —The California Fann¬ 
er states that the sales of fruit from the farm of 
G. G. Briggs, of Marysville, amounted last year 
to over $100,000, and doubts whether any sin¬ 
gle gold mine in California, yielded as much 
during the same time. 
Long Lived Apple Tree! —It is stated that 
an apple tree on the premises of Dr. Elisha 
Lord, of Abingdon, Mass., lias borne large quan¬ 
tities of excellent fruit every season for seventy 
years past, and is still in vigorous condition. 
