536 STATE HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
large bunches, or has not ripened its fruit so equally or so early as usual. In. 
this case I cut away an adjusting proportion of the arms, in the fall, and giv¬ 
ing the vine less to do, it requires less space, while in the other case I give 
more length of area and more space, and where I find I have not yet given, 
space enough, I allow a safety valve cane or two. It is very important in 
grape-growing to ascertain how much work your vines vMl do well and continue to do, 
in order to avoid the evils and diseases from overbearing and consequent ex¬ 
haustion, as well as to avoid an insufficient yield. 
I plant my vines, for the most part, in accordance with the views just ex¬ 
pressed, some of them four feet, some six and some eight or more feet apart, 
giving myself room to treat each vine according to its own particular re¬ 
quirements. And until the individual character of our manifold varieties 
can be locally ascertained, and we have as it seems to me very little of such 
knowledge yet, I think it is absurd to be governed by any other practice. 
Training the Vine .—Among all the manners of training the vines, so far as 
I have tried them, or seen them tried, I prefer, especially for this State, and 
use the double-arm system. It is convenient for culture and care, being 
most easily and completely attended to. And as I carry my vines 
onlyfive feet high, it is not liable to injury from our high winds—keeps the 
fruit near the ground, where it ripens better; where it is less likely to be in¬ 
jured by those strong frosts which occasionally visit us out of season—and as 
another recommendation, in gardens it requires but little space. It yields 
as much if not more and finer fruit than anp other method, and as yet I know 
of no objection to it. It is unnecessary for me to dwell upon the manner of 
training the vine by this system or to describe the system itself, as it is to 
be found in every book on grape growing and probably in most of our grape 
gardens. 
Pruning .—Nor do I believe it is necessary for me to say more about prun¬ 
ing than that I prune about the middle of November, believing, as I have 
found, any other time to be ruinous to the vine. 
I know the German prejudice in favor of spring pruning, and I have tried 
it as well as seen it tried by others. I cut back a good, strong, three year 
old Northern Muscadine, upon one occasion, in the spring, and the bleeding 
and shock to it was so great that it did not fruit until the third year after¬ 
wards, and I have seen the same consequence to a remarkably fine Catawba 
or Isabella—I don’t just remember which—large enough to cover the front of 
the house, although treated by its German owner, who advocated spring 
pruning; and while I would not be understood as asserting that such ruinous 
consequences always followed spring pruning, I do not hesitate in saying that 
while no objection, so far as I know, can be urged against fall pruning, very 
strong objections are raised to pruning the vine in the spring. 
The vine, as we know should be covered for a week or ten days after prun¬ 
ing. It ought to be exposed to some cold weather—a sharp frost or two— 
otherwise it is apt to bleed in the spring. 
