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Show HOW SHALL I TRAIN MY RATE VINES ? Salt Lake Cirr, April 10, 79. Editors mrald: In tbia letter I des;ga tr give an answer to the question above, but not particularly to pleaea profe.-aionsl grapc-rowers, or ckiilful and experienced exper-ienced amateurs, for, aa a rale, euch parties have their own eytema aud methods and predilections in Ihe matter o( viniculture, and are wedded 10 them, nf all which, however, I make nocotupUint. If a man haa a good thiDg, why should he not stick to it ? But I write for the bulk of the people, wbo may wib to grow eome grapea of their own, but who are deterred therefrom, or discouraged in the attempt, by reaion of aupposed insurmountable difficulties in tr.an-aud tr.an-aud pruning. I shall try to Iuy be lore such people a method of training, 90 simple that anybody can readily understand and practise it, and so inexpensive inex-pensive that it ia within reach ol the very paoreat of the pupulation, yet that will he as efficient and as satisfactory satis-factory in reaulta aa many other methods, however elaborate and expensive, ex-pensive, and whatever skill and attention atten-tion thc-y may require. As I have said, and as RnyboJy can eoon find out for himself by experience, ex-perience, the Spanish and California method ot lew stump spur training, though the simplest and least expen-eive expen-eive of all melhoda, is unsuitable for this territory, at least this part of it, becauee the fruit is spoiled by contact with the black Boil. The thing to 06 discovered, then, is a method that will rival, or come little short of, the low slump method in simplicity and inexpensiveness, and that will be free from the serious, and even fatal, objections of that method. I believe I have in my mind a method that will answer all these re quiremcnta. I first came to a realization realiza-tion of this by observing the habit of a Rtbeeca vine, that had been lelt largely to itself, and a very pretty and graceful habit it was. The method thai I propose, for general adoption in this region, may be named, vary appropiiately, tho umbrella um-brella method, lor that name will give an excellent idea of tbejnethod. Take an umbrella, spread it open, and stand it upright on the ground in the way you bold it over your head to keep off the rain, and you will have a very good similitude of the form which I propose for the grape vine, when in full growth aud covered with foliage. The stick and the ribs of tho umbrella, stripped of the cover, will give a fair idea of the the skeleton of tbe vine, when stripped of its leaves. Cut back the ribs of tbe umbrella to within from two to air inches of tbe stick, and you have the form of the vine after the annual pruning. I do not mean the exact form of the vine, for its branches will not be nearly eo regular, and should not be nnarlv r.t nnmprnnn nn tbn rilia rf he umbrella, but tbe branches of the vine will radiate from the stem in a rude likeness to the radiation radi-ation of tbe ribs from the slick of the umbrella and assume a pendant habit aometbing like tbem. This is simplicity itself, but it is all there iB of the method, with the exception of a stake, to which tbe stem of tbo vine miiBl ba tied for support. It will readily be seen that this is very much like the Spanish and California Cali-fornia low stump method. In fact, this umbrella method is simply on elongation of the idem of the vine trained on the low Bturup method, adapting it to this climate and locality. lo-cality. Tbe method that I propose lifts up the head and tho shoots and the foliage acd the fruit of tbo vine out of tbe duet, the mud, the weeds, the mildew and the rot, which would attach to the vine and spoil tbe results re-sults of its culture hereabout if tbe low stump method was adopted. Now i will trace the vine from ita planting for two or three years, and see what can be done with it by this umbrella method. The first spring, when the vine '.a planted, a stake is driven by the side of it into tbe ground. It is not absolutely requisite to drive the stake in tbe first year. Some people would leave the stakes out thr.t year aud let the vines grow any way they chanced, putting in tbe slakes the second spring,. Cut 1 think it would bo batter to put the stake in tbe first year with the vine, if you could afiord it, and let tbe vine com meuce at onre to do what you expect it to do, thus training it up in tbe way it Bheuld grow from the beyinnin. Next conic the qucdion, "How long shall tbe slakes be?" The longer they are the mnro timber they take, the more wind they gather, and tbe more leverage there ia to ths part out of the ground. They should be high enough to keep the fruit well ofl the ground, and from being splashed and soiled by a summer cr fail bhower of rain, and that is as biyh as they need be. Suppose the stakes were cut our iec-t long, and driven eighteen inches into the ground, leAviug the stakes about two ket six inches out of the ground. That would do very well. The head of tbe vine would be about aa hip,u as an ordinary table, whence the branches or cane would spring out ail around the vine, and as they grew uod extended ex-tended would ban down gracu'iy tothetround on every side. To ft good shoot of the vine there aro usually three fcunchea of fruit. From the bud on the spur at tbe bead of the vino whence the shoot started out, to the bottom of the lowest bunch, might be about two feet, wbich wou.d leare six inches clear between tue rxiitom or me lowest bunch aud the soil. That ia why I proposed to have tbe Btakcs and tba head ol the vine about two feet six inches high. If jcu grew only one bunch on a shoot, tbo head of the vine need not be so high, two feet would do, for wbich a three-feet stake would be long enough, driven a foot into tbe ground. Cut many people would not take tho trouble to thin lbs bunches ol their grapes to one bunch on a shoot, as many expert grap? growers do. Therefore do I say tnat two feet six ir.cnes wojid beaded height to suit tne convenience of the cer.eraiity ot the people. Alter your vine ia planted aud the Etake is driven into tne ;oucd csr.r it a? the vice grows tbe trat summer it'ehcu'd be tied to the stake lor nip-port. nip-port. Three snccee&ive tyitifc wiil be oufrciert, at dnTtreat hcicoia of te.e st.ike. Perhaps two w il be enoucn. j f you r vir.e ia thrifty and mates a gocd growtn, it w.ii nach tie, top c' Uic ttise, arid perhaps crow s-f-vtrsl feet icne-r be lore iheic.vt fa!1. J; you have time to a::end to it during the growing ee6s:n, let only one cane grew, pinching h -L-k all 'he .J-B"OOti. .J-B"OOti. Ttien the o:.e caue. will receive re-ceive all tbe vignr (! the vine, in-a'ead in-a'ead of that vior being dirlu?ed among a number of weakly shoL?. If the cane ia not very vigorous the first season, cut it down at the annual prunirg, in the fall or early spring, leaving two or threa buds. If the cane grows long and Birong, you can cut ii ofl at tbe Lp of tbe stakes at the annual pruning. That ia the first season's work. The second season, if jotr vice waa weak, train it up the stake the same as the first season. If the vine ws ctroiig and wai pruned ofl at the tup of ue 6t:tke, you can leave two or ihre-t buds at tbo top of the cane, two wiii be enough, and rub ofl all the buds below, as they begin to grow. Yon do not want tbem to grow. Yon only need tbe two top buds Let a cane grow from each of those two bude. On a good, vicorouB vine, fruit will be likely to thow on the shoots from those two buds. You will be sorely tempted to let the iruit grow, it' il is your first vine, tje Iruit will be almost S3 pre cicua in your eyes aa your first baby. Bjt never mind, it vill be better to emolher your feelings and rub the fruit bunches ofl' early, bo as not to weaken tneviue byallowingit to bear too soon. Let tbe two canea grow anil mostly lake care of themselves. If one grows much louder and etrouger than the other, pinch ofl tbe end of the longest aod strongest, which will check its growth and give the weaker shoot a chance. At the late fall or early spring pruning, cut back your two c.nea to tbreo or four buds on each. Y'our vine may now be said to be permanently established. The third summer perhaps a stronger tie will ba wanted; which Kbould be put near the tep of the stoke nnri. if maHn nf Hnrnhta niatpri:il that string will last for years and will be all tbe tying wanted, psrhaps until the stem of the viue srows stout enough to support tbe head without any stake at all. Let four or six canea grow the third summer, sum-mer, according to the strength and vigor of the vine, disposing them as welt aa you caa regularly all around the vins. Don't have too many canes or shoots springing from tbe spurs at the head of tho vine, or it will choke itself with excess of twigs and foliage. Thin ths shoots out a little, if they spring forth too numerously. numer-ously. It should be kept in mind that after the vine is established at the top of the stake, no shoots must be allowed al-lowed to grow on the stem ol tbe vine between the ground and the head. If the canea grow too long at any tims, a rapid method of checking their growth would be to go through the vines with a sickle and cut ofl the longest tips. The above is written for hardy vines, those tb.;t do not need burying in tho winter. But the tenderer ten-derer vines might be trained in the ssrno method, excepting that the stem, instead of growing upright against the stake, could grow on an incline, the stake being set a couple of feet or so from the vine, that the stem miht be more readily bent down to bury the vine in the fall, to protect it from the hard fronts and the .-Hfl IU at-,.,.,,., rl u-l,.tcr Now let me s'ateor recapitulate briefly some ol the advantages of this umbrella method of training. It is so very simple that anybody can uuder stand and practise it at once. It is so very inexpensive that anybody can aflord it. Any kind of stakes will do, if they are strong enough, or common four leet pickets will suffice aud will last for several years. A stake can be renewed any year, with but little trouble.which cannot be said of a trellis trel-lis poet. Almost anything will do for thetwoor three tyiugs tho first year, but the one permanent tying at tne tup oftheetaye ought to be done with some durable material, to save lur-ther lur-ther trouble, and then that is all the tying needed for years. There is no enditss repetition of tyinus every bunimer, and uutyings every fall or early spring at the annual pruning, as with most other methods aud systems. sys-tems. The vines could not be in better form for working among theui with & hoe, and if they are planted regularly, four by four feet, or five by five, or some eimilar distance apart, the soil can be hoed or cultivated bulb , ways, with a horse, in spring and fall, afier the annual pruning, as easily as corn, to keep down weeds aud loosen tiie surface. The bonds of toe vines are at a very convenient height for pruning or picking tbo fruit, so thai there is very little back bending and backbreaking work after the viues arc established, nor if there any Blraining in reaching required. The vines aro n:jt high up, to re exposed to strong wiude, and tbe Various vines would shelter each other. Vines would louk as handsome trained in this way as in any other way. If tbe vines were not permitted to grow into a wilderness of brush, tbe new wood of the spurs would all be well ripened every year. Tho fruit would not be far from the ground, but would receive the beuetit of the heat radiated ttierefrom in the night and would be Bhultertd by tho foliage from cold winds. I believe vines tmiued on this method would Buller much less from neglect than those trained on mot other methods, X "Mormon" might go on a mission for a year or two, or a "Ueotile" might go prospecting for a like pencil, and when be came back to his bome and to his family, if bis boys had negiected his vines in the interim, he would soon get tbe latter, 1 say nothing of tbe former, into torm and trim again, and tbey would have borne pretty well, too, while he was away, even in spile of considerable consider-able neglect. I msy add that pendant pend-ant branches usually are more fruitful fruit-ful than ILcfp that grow upright. Tnereforc, fur ail thfo reasons, I consider that this Spanish and Cali fornia rndiaimg spur LraJ, with elongated stem and mpporlinc stake, or as 1 term it, umbittia rutbod ot training, is fr bit'.rr r.drpttrd tnan any other rue-tLvd I.j the common culture of the gra;;e in this territory, terri-tory, or, I migLl rather -ay, in the Salt Lake Basin. This region, too, being so near the Pacitlc slope, an yet not of it exactly, there is a eort of poetic piopricty in we reopit of t tie Great Basin taking from our Pacific neighbors their mewl approved me-tbede of prr.pe culture and appropriating ap-propriating ti.em, w:th euch slight adaptation sb circumstances require, to our nn u?e. J. J. |
