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Page 19
Vines may be set out not only in the garden borders, but also in
almost any place where their roots will not be interfered with,
and where their foliage will receive plenty of light and air. How
well I remember the old Isabella vines that clambered on a trellis
over the kitchen door at my childhood's home! In this sunny
exposure, and in the reflected heat of the building, the clusters
were always the sweetest and earliest ripe. A ton of grapes may be
secured annually by erecting trellises against the sides of
buildings, walls, and poultry yard, while at the same time the
screening vines furnish grateful shade and no small degree of
beauty. With a little petting, such scattered vines are often
enormously productive. An occasional pail of soapsuds gives them a
drink which eventually flushes the thickly hanging clusters with
exquisite color. People should dismiss from their minds the usual
method of European cultivation, wherein the vines are tied to
short stakes, and made to produce their fruit near the ground.
This method can be employed if we find pleasure in the experiment.
At Mr. Fuller's place I saw fine examples of it. Stubby vines with
stems thick as one's wrist rose about three feet from the ground,
then branched off on every side, like an umbrella, with loads of
fruit. Only one supporting stake was required. This method
evidently is not adapted to our climate and species of grape,
since in that case plenty of keen, practical fruit-growers would
have adopted it. I am glad this is true, for the vine-clad hills
of France do not present half so pleasing a spectacle as an
American cornfield. The vine is beautiful when grown as a vine,
and not as a stub; and well-trained, well-fed vines on the Home
Acre can be developed to almost any length required, shading and
hiding with greenery every unsightly object, and hanging their
finest clusters far beyond the reach of the predatory small boy.
We may now consider the vines planted and growing vigorously, as
they will in most instances if they have been prepared for and
planted according to the suggestions already given. Now begins the
process of guiding and assisting Nature. Left to herself, she will
give a superabundance of vine, with sufficient fruit for purposes
of propagation and feeding the birds. Our object is to obtain the
maximum of fruit from a minimum of vine. The little plant, even
though grown from a single bud, will sprawl all over everything
near it in three or four years, if unchecked. Pruning may begin
even before midsummer of the first year. The single green shoot
will by this time begin to produce what are termed "laterals." The
careful cultivator who wishes to throw all the strength and growth
into the main shoot will pinch these laterals back as soon as they
form one leaf. Each lateral will start again from the axil of the
leaf that has been left, and having formed another leaf, should
again be cut off. By repeating this process during the growing
season you have a strong single cane by fall, reaching probably
beyond the top of the supporting stake. In our latitude I advise
that this single cane--that is, the vine--be cut back to within
fifteen inches of the surface when the leaves have fallen and the
wood has well-ripened--say about the middle of November--and that
the part left be bent over and covered with earth. When I say
"bent over," I do not mean at right angles, so as to admit of the
possibility of its being broken, but gently and judiciously. I
cover with earth all my vines, except the Concords and Isabellas,
just before hard freezing weather; and even these two hardy kinds
I weight down close to the ground. I have never failed to secure a
crop from vines so treated. Two men will protect over a hundred
vines in a day.
In early April the young vine is uncovered again; and now the two
uppermost buds are allowed to grow and form two strong canes,
instead of one, and on this new growth four or five clusters of
grapes may be permitted to mature if the vine is vigorous. If it
is feeble, take off all the fruit, And stimulate the vine into
greater vigor. Our aim is not to obtain half a dozen inferior
clusters as soon as possible, but to produce a vine that will
eventually almost supply a family by itself. If several varieties
have been planted, some will be found going ahead rampantly;
others will exhibit a feebler growth, which can be hastened and
greatly increased by enriching the surface of the soil around them
and by a pail of soap-suds now and then in May or June--but not
later, unless there should be a severe drought. There should be no
effort to produce much growth during the latter part of the summer
and early autumn, for then both the wood and roots will be
immature and unripened when frost begins, and thus the vine
receive injury. For this reason it is usually best to apply
fertilizers to vines in the fall; for if given in the spring, a
late, unhealthful growth is often produced. Throughout all
subsequent years manure must be applied judiciously. You may tell
the hired man to top-dress the ground about the vines, and he will
probably treat all alike; a vine that is already growing so
strongly that it can scarcely be kept within bounds will receive
as much as one that is slow and feeble in its development. This is
worse than waste. Each vine should be treated in accordance with
its condition and habit of growth. What would be thought of a
physician who ordered a tonic for an entire family, giving as much
to one who might need depleting, as to another who, as country
people say, was "puny and ailin'?" With even an assortment of half
a dozen varieties we shall find after the first good start that
some need a curb, and others a spur.
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