I 
344 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
a moveable brace or post at any height required, and may be 
as easily changed from a horizontal position for covering up, to 
an upright position for sunning, as the blade of a knife may 
be opened and shut upon the handle. If the cross bars are 
alternately upon opposite sides of the upright pieces, the vines 
can be passed between them, needing no other support. 
After the trellis is erected, the vines may be taken up—hav¬ 
ing been previously uncovered to avoid damaging—and attached 
thereto; and as we now consider them fully established, we 
may look hopefully for fruit. The weeds must be kept down 
as heretofore. 
In June examine the vines, and pinch off those bearing fruit, 
three leaves beyond the last bunch of grapes set, and cut out 
all superfluous growth, so as to encourage the growth of fruit, 
that we may get as much size and maturity in the early part of 
the season as possible. The new growth through the whole 
season must be watched, and pinched back, otherwise it will 
become too exuberant and the fruit will not ripen. 
In the fall, the vines are to receive another trimming. At 
this time cut the laterals back to one bud. Shorten in the 
principal canes to seven feet, and the new ones, which may 
have started from the base, but which must not increase more 
than one each year, and better if not so fast—to four feet. 
Lay the vines upon the ground and cover as previously des¬ 
cribed. The time for trimming the vine in the North-west is 
the fall, in preference to winter or spring, as when the vines 
are once covered for winter, they should remain so till put 
upon the trellis ; and at this season, (April), the flow of sap is 
so great as to cause them to bleed, much to the detriment of 
the vine. If from neglect it is not done till spring, the wound 
may be covered with common bar soap, which will remain till 
it is healed or grown over. 
The cultivation of our improved native vines is comparatively 
an easy thing. Yet many are ready to ask “ why then so much 
routine in their culture, or of pruning and manuring?” ’ Tis 
true, many are grown throughout the West with no apparent 
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