The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-02-28
OUWHlUlICdletl.
Grape Culture,

Grape Culture.
Messrs. Editors,-In your issue of the
4th instant read an essay on grape Gull
ture by DR.. S. P. Moore. Being engaged
in this business, /, of course, read it with
much interest but, being still novice,
do not myself feel qualified to express any
decided opinion on the system of culture it
recommends. /, however, handed the paper
to Swiss gentleman, who is managing my
vineyard, (Mr. William Kunz) and, with
your permission, will give his views ON
the subject.
have vineyard of about three acres of
different varieties-Norton Virginia, Della
ware, Ives, Concord, Hartford Prolific,
Clinton, Catawba, Isabella, &C., planted
and managed by Mr.. Kunz. The vineyard
has been visited by several professional
grape-groWers, and they unite in the opin-
ion that it is well planted and cultivated.
As to the system of pruning, training,
pinching, &C., do not know whether his
mode is the best or not consider grape
culture in these particulars as simply an
experiment in this country. The future
will determine for us, in practice, which
mode is the best. Mr.. Kunz's method Of
pruning for the first and second years is
Identical with that of DR.. Moore's. l
should premise, however, that the system
adopted by him is the single arm, in prefer
ence to the double arm, which seems to be
generally adopted throughout the vine
growing States. For the third year Mr..
Kunz prunes one cane, the lower one, to a
spur of three buds, which in the third
summer should produce three shoots.
Early in April he rubs off the weakest and
allows only two to grow. The upper cane
he prunes to On arm, the length Of it being
regulated by the strength Of the vine 1.-THE
weakest vines he prunes back to two spurs
of three buds each). This arm, though,
instead of being trained horizontally,-as
recommended by most of the works on
grape culture-he curves in the form of Il
bow, on the theory that this will somewhat
check the tendency of the vine to produce
only towards the end of the cane good
grapes and good wood; and by this mode
he expects the quality Of both grapes and
wood will be more uniformly good through
out the length of the cane. He is also in
favor of pruning the cane rather longer
than the strength of the vine will justif =,
and then in hespring will thin out as much
as he thinks proper. By this means Ire
will have greater number of bearing
shoots to select from they will be more
divided and less crowded. The Delaware
and other slow-growing varieties he prunes
rather short. In the fourth year he intends
to cut the extended arm clean off to the
stock, and from the two canes which have
grown from the spur be will select the
upper for bearing cane, and the lower
will again be pruned back to spur.
He will make an exception to this rule,
however, in the treatment Of the Norton
Virginia. In regard to this variety he
adopts the system recommended by Hus-
man that is, he will prune the bearing
canes on the extended arm Of the third
summer back to one or two buds, to bear
fruit the fourth summer. Another excep-
ton he makes with the Concord. In this
he agrees entirely with uusman, and
pinches of in the second summer the upper
cane of the two. when it is about four feet
high, to allow the laterals to grow, and
then, in the autumn of the second year,
he prunes the main cane down to two late
rails, leaving on each of them about seven
buds. From the spur of the Concord he
produces, as from other varieties, two
canes the upper one he pinches out, and
leaves for the bearing of the fourth sum-
mer four laterals. He thinks that on the
vigorous Concord the main cane will be too
thick to produce abundant and good fruit,
and prefers q more moderate growth. As
to the planting out Of cuttings in the vine
yard, he tried this method the past year
with Concords, and with complete success
80 far as the appearance of the vines at
present indicate. He says it is a very
common practice throughout most of the
European vine-growing regions. His p,o-
cess was very simple. The ground was
ploughed and sub-soiied, then laid off, and
a stick put into the ground wherever he
wanted to plant cutting, then with the
spade he made a hole, pulverized
the soil, and mixed with wood and leaf
mould, and set the cutting, pressing the
earth firmly around 1.-THE cutting inclin-
ing to the stake-I do not know exactly at
what angle. Mr.. Kuny would not advise,
however, the planting of any hardwood
varieties ,as they have failed to grow in the
open air, even when more care and pre-
caution were exercised than could be be-
slowed on planting them out in vine
yard.
I showed Mr.. Kunz DIR. Moore's article,
and he remarked: "The whole seems to be
q description of the management observed
in the south of France, except that in re-
lation to stock pruning, which is more fire.
ouently met with in Hungary. A man
adopting this system need not fear that he
will ruin his vines by overbearing. / am
myself On enemy of oyerbearing, as it
INJURIES the vines at the heart, and no
manure can help them; the vines will
suffer for many years. But, notwithstand-
inS, l do not think itadvisable to adopt the
plan Of DR.. Moore. First. The character
Of our vines is altogether different from
those Of France. BY pruning in the second
autumn the two canes down to two buds
each we would most likely, from oil our
vigorous growers, get canes of enormous
size, uaft to bring good fruit and il over
taxing the ability of vine be Q fault OF
error, to undertake it ID one Of almost o.
much injury to the vine-groTer. Expe.
risncs alone will teach tho yineyardist