The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-03-26
GRAPE TRAINING.

GRAPE TRAINING.
First Year Above. Second Year Below.)
now ready to take some form of train
ing.
From long and practical experience
with number of the different methods
of training in the same vineyard, the
writer has concluded, all things con-
sldered, that a modification of what
is known as the Kniffen, or more prop
erly speaking, a combination of the
Knitfen and dropping methods is the
simplest, cheapest and by far the most
practical. This consists in having two
wires, one at the top and one Ia inches
below it, strung on posts standing not
less than 51a feet out of the ground;
and the vines are set eight feet apart,
| and with the wires drawn taut it will
give room to pass under the treliis
whenever it may be found convenient
to do so. Assuming that the growth
has reached the top of the trellis, tie
the vine to the top wire with piece of
Irvine or raffia, just enough to hold it
in place without injury, then cut it off
above the wire. AS soon as the buds
have grown few inches or before they
have made too much growth, select the
four strongest canes next under, and
running parallel with the wires; tie
them along their respective wires and
remove all others. This brings us to
the end of the second season, and all
will admit that it is neither difficult
ncr complicated to grow vine as rep
resented in the cut.
At the beginning of the third season
we have vine consisting of an up
right two years old, and four horizon
tai canes one year old respectively.
AS the fruit is produced on the current
years growth, it is readily seen that
as few or as many may be allowed to
grow as are desired, according to the
habit and vigor of the vine. On the
free growing varieties, such as the
Concord, Brighton and Niagara. it is
best to remove every other bud, while
on the short jointed sorts, as the Aga
wan and many other well-known kinds
every third bud will give all the wood
that the vine should grow and supply,
with a proper balance between root
and top. 1t must be understood that
the canes selected for the fruiting ones
are not to be allowed to grow at ran
dom, but after they have made three
or four leaves besides the ones OPP
posite the grape clusters, they are to
be shortened in and kept so, and thus
force the strength of the vine into the
fruit, and not have it wasted in the
production of useless wood.
am well aware that this practice
has been questioned, and by some is
considered as useless labor, and by
others as contrary to nature, but care
full comparison where results meant
dollars and cents, leads me to prefer
it to the slipshod method of letting
the vines run at random, to say moth
ing of the extra amount of spraying
compound wasted, or the annoyance
at picking time. We are now at the
close of the third season, and our vine
is assumed to be in full system, and
probably has more wood than is re-
quired for the coming season. How to
reduce this is the question this is con-
fusing to many, but it is explained by
simply cutting the vine back to where
we found it at the beginning of the
season, by reducing each fruiting cane
to its first bud. This places the vine
as at the beginning of the season. ex-
cept that the producing buds have
taken the form of spurs. This may be
repeated for number of years, or
until the horizontal cane becomes old,
orthe spurs become long and unsightly.
When it is considered necessary to re-
new the horizontal cane, the one-year
growth, or fruiting cane next to the
upright or main part of thevine should
not be cut away, but saved as a new
horizontal, and the old or rejected cane
cut out instead.-Rural New Yorker.