Other authorities prefer the Thomery system of training, but I think it much more complicated and difficult to follow. Those wishing to follow it will find full directions in Dr. Grant's and Fuller's books, which are very explicit on this method.
OTHER METHODS OF TRAINING THE VINE.
There are many other systems in vogue among vine-dressers in Germany and France, but as our native grapes are so much stronger in growth, and are in this climate so much more subject to mildew and rot, I think these methods, upon the whole, but poorly adapted to the wants of our native grapes, however judicious they may be there. I will only mention a few of them here; one because it is to a great extent followed in Mexico and California, and seems to suit that dry climate and arid soil very well; and the other, because it will often serve as a pretty border to beds in gardens. The first is the so-called buck or stool method of training. The vine is made to form its head—i.e., the part from which the branches start—about a foot above the ground, and all the young shoots are allowed to grow, but summer-pruned or checked just beyond the last bunch of grapes. The next spring all of the young shoots are cut back to two eyes, and this system of "spurring in" is kept up, and the vine will in time present the appearance of a bush or miniature tree, producing all its fruit within a foot from the head, and without further support than its own stem. Very old vines trained in this manner often have twenty to twenty-five spurs, and present, with their fruit all hanging in masses around the main trunk, a pleasing but rather odd aspect. This method could not be applied here with any chance of success only to those varieties which are slow growers, and at the same time very hardy. The Delaware would perhaps be the most suitable of all varieties I know for a trial of this method; such strong growers as the Concord and Norton's Virginia could never be kept within the proper bounds, and it would be useless to try it on them. It might be of advantage on poor soil, where there is at the same time a scarcity of timber. Figure 17 shows an old vine pruned after this method.
Fig. 17.
The other method of dwarfing the grape is practiced to make a pretty border along walks in gardens, and is as follows: Plant your vines about eight feet apart; treat them the first season as in common vineyard planting, but at the end of the first season cut back to two eyes. Now provide posts, three to three and a half feet long; drive them into the ground about eighteen inches to two feet, which can be easily done if they are pointed at one end, and nail a lath on top of them. This is your trellis for the vines, and should be about eighteen inches above the ground when ready. Now allow both shoots which will start from the two buds to grow unchecked; and when they have grown above the trellis, tie one down to the right, the other to the left, allowing them to ramble at will along it. The next fall they are each cut back to the proper length, to meet the next vine, and in spring tied firmly to the lath, as shown in Figure 18. When the young shoots appear, all below the trellis are rubbed off, but all those above the trellis are summer-pruned or pinched immediately beyond the last bunch of grapes, as in vineyard culture, and the trellis, with its garland of fruit, will present a very pretty appearance throughout the summer. In the fall all of these shoots are pruned to one bud, from which will grow the fruit-bearing shoot for the next season, as shown in Figure 19; and the same treatment is repeated during the summer and fall.
Fig. 18. and Fig. 19.