260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
pruning, remove all the loose bark, and clean well 
around the bases of the knots to prevent insects 
lodging therein. Wash the vines with the prep¬ 
aration advised in February, taking care not to in- 
iure the buds. Keep the house as cool as possi¬ 
ble, and let the vines rest so until the time to 
commence forcing, which will be according as 
earl) or later grapes are wanted. To obtain ripe 
fruit by the middle of May, it will be required to 
begin by the middle of December, and later in 
proportion. Such extreme artificial culture should 
not be attempted by the novice, however, as it 
requires considerable experience, and is attended 
with much care and expense. Grapes still on the 
vines, either under glass or out-doors, need not 
be cut at once ; one or two degrees of frost will 
not hurt them even if wanted to keep. If more 
frost is apprehended, they may be removed and 
preserved, as advised last month. In the retard¬ 
ing house, or where there is a heating apparatus, 
a gentle fire should be applied on such occasions, 
but admit air freely, excluding any moisture. 
FALL PRUNING OF GRAPES. 
The time has now arrived for the great annual 
dressing of hardy vines. For this latitude, we 
much prefer Autumn for doing the principal 
share of this work. In the first place, it will or¬ 
dinarily be done better now than amid the snows 
and frosts of Winter. And secondly, if done soon 
after the dropping of the leaves, the organizable 
matter which .vould otherwise be distributed 
among all the shoots and buds of the entire vine, 
is accumulated in the shoots and buds left after the 
pruning, the advantage of which will appear in 
the increased'size of the fruit next season. Third¬ 
ly, vines pruned in Autumn, can be much easier 
handled when the time comes for loosening them 
from the trellis and laying them on the ground for 
the Winter—a practice we decidedly recommend 
for the Northern States. Moreover, vines pruned 
in mid-winter are apt to lose one or mote buds 
back from the incision ; and if pruned in Spring 
they are certain to bleed badly, a tiling we don’t 
like to see, even if it does the vines no sensible 
harm. These reasons are theoretically sound, 
and we have tested their practical importance for 
several years on our own premises. 
But without dwelling longer on this part of the 
subject, we wish to say a few seasonable words on 
the manner of pruning. And, for the benefit es¬ 
pecially of our new subscribers, we will show the 
method of diessing a vine for several years. 
One principle should always be borne in mind, 
that the grape hears its fruit on shoots of the current 
year's groicth, which spring from buds on shoots of 
the preceding year's growth. This is the key to the 
whole mystery of vine-dressing. We will now 
suppose that the reader has a young vine in his 
garden, which has made a year’s growth since it 
was planted. It looks, perhaps, like figure 1. 
Cut off, now, all of these 
shoots, except the strongest, 
and prune that back, leaving 
only two buds of the present 
year’s growth. It will then 
look like figure 2. And 
here, we will add, parentheti¬ 
cally, that if 
your vine is a choice variety 
which you wish to multiply, you 
can bury the cuttings just taken • 
off in some dry place in the gar- Fig. 2. 
den, and on the opening of Spring set them out. 
Prepare the ground well by deep spading, put "n 
the cuttings,* raving omy one bud on each above 
ground, mulrh the soil in Summer, arid in ordinary 
Fig 1. 
seasons, two-thirds of the plants will grow well. 
New hands at grape growing are altogether too 
tender-hearted, or too tender-handed. It seems 
to them like a waste of the vine to cut it back to 
within two or three buds of the ground, as shown 
in fig. 2. But be assures that to produce a good 
root and strong branching vines which are at all 
times under your control, you must begin at the 
very outset to use the knife freely. In a large, 
flourishing and profitable vineyard which we vis¬ 
ited at the West the past season, all the vines are 
cut down to within three feet of the ground every 
year. They run upon a low trellis made by set¬ 
ting rough posts five feet apart, across which are 
nailed long, strong laths forming a sort of fence. 
The grapes are never beyond one’s reach. 
But to return. The buds left on the original 
vine will push early the next Spring. After a few 
week’s growth, rub all off except the strongest 
shoot, and allow that to extend itself until Au¬ 
tumn. During the Summer, pinch off all laterals, 
(side shoots), and cut out any suckers springing up 
from the root. In the Fall, we shall have the fol¬ 
lowing picture. 
The autumn management for the 
second year will consist in cutting 
back this leading cane to three or 
four buds of the new wood. Select 
the two strongest shoots from these 
buds next Summer, rubbing off the 
others, checking the laterals and 
cutting out suckers, as before rec¬ 
ommended. These leading shoots 
will probably display a few clusters 
this year, but they must be taken off, because the 
vine is not yet vigorous enough 
for fruit-bearing. In the Fall our 
plant will look thus : 
Third Year. —The two strong 
canes fig. 4, should now be 
shortened to two or three buds 
of the new growth, and tied to 
the lower bar of the trellis, 
which we will suppose has just 
been erected. Or rather, we 
would advise to lay them on 
the ground for protection in Winter. The follow¬ 
ing Spring they may be raised and tied to the 
lower horizontal bar of the frame. During the 
Summer, the bud on the extremity of each cane 
should be allowed to grow at random on the trel¬ 
lis. This is done in order to enlarge the founda¬ 
tion or frame-work of the vine. One other bud 
also should be allowed to grow upward from the 
horizontal arms, on each side of the central trunk. 
Laterals and suckers should still be kept in check. 
At the close of Summer we shall have this pic¬ 
ture : 
Fourth Year.—' The canes which have grown at 
random from the ends of the horizontal arms 
should now be shortened back to within about two 
feet of their last year’s length, and then brought 
down to the lower bar of the trellis. The other 
two canes must be pruned to about four feet. 
Next Summer, these upright canes will throw out 
laterals on which clusters of fruit will appear. 
Two or three bunches may be allowed to grow 
and ripen on each spur In the meanwhile, t] 1? . 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 3. 
terminal buds of the horizontal arms will throw 
out canes for prolonging the vine on each side, 
and new upright canes will grow up between the 
fruit-bearing shoots to furnish new wood for bear 
ing fruit the next year. Only two new upright 
shoots should be suffered to grow, the weakest 
being rubbed off. And thus, two new upright 
canes may be added annually, and the horizontal 
arms extended, until the trellis is covered. The 
vine will then have this appearance 
After this, the pruning may be done according 
to the renewal , or the spur system. If the renewal 
is preferred, the method is as follows : Cut out, in 
the Fall, the dark lines, a, a, a, which have borne 
fruit the current year, leaving a strong bud at their 
base. The dotted lines, b, b, b, are shoots which 
have grown up the current year while a, a, have 
been bearing fruit. These are to be left to bear 
fruit next year. While these again are producing 
clusters, new canes will be growing up from the 
strong bud left at the base of a, a. After b, b, has 
borne fruit one year, it is to be cut out, to give 
room again for a, a, to do the same. And so on 
alternately from year to year; the principle being 
always followed, that the growth of one year 
bears fruit the succeeding, and then is removed. 
If the spur-system is chosen, the upright canes 
are not allowed to grow nearer to each other than 
two feet, and then are kept in place permanently. 
The side-shoots which spring out from them are 
cut back every Fall to one or two strong buds. 
Fruit-spurs grow from these buds. It is recom¬ 
mended by some, always to leave two buds, one 
of which shall furnish spurs for fruit-bearing the 
current year, the other to furnish eyes for grow 
ing the next year’s crop. 
Thus, (fig. 7), a is the bear¬ 
ing spur of the present year, 
and to be cut clean out in 
the Fall, leaving b to fruit 
next year. And while b is 
fruiting, a is pushing again, 
and so on annually. It is 
objected to this by some, 
that this is unnecessary 
trouble, and that two shoots render the foliage too 
crowded for the successful ripening of the fruit. 
The renewal method is considered the best for 
native varieties, which are rampant in their 
growth, often sending up strong shoots from the 
base, fifteen or twenty feet long in a single Sum¬ 
mer. The spur-system is best for slow-growing 
sorts, which arc chiefly foreigners. 
In our own grounds we have sometimes prac¬ 
ticed a combination of these methods, and we like 
it. We have trained vines in a fan-shape; the 
cant® diverging, like the spokes of a wheel, from 
the central trunk to the top of the trellis. So long 
as a shoot retains all its buds sound and plump, 
we let it stand, and prune it according to the spur- 
system ; when it fails in any respect, we eat it 
out and train up a new one in its place from the 
base. We like this method, because it enables us 
to remedy at once any defect in the vine, and 
chiefly, because of the facility with which canes so 
trealed can be laid down for protection in Winter 
