pounds of fruit or more to the foot of the main stem
can be permitted. The novice, however, is likely to permit his vines
to overbear with the result that the crop is cast, or the berries
rattle, or the fruit turns sour before ripening. From the beginning to
the finish of the season, in this method of pruning, much pinching of
laterals is required. No hard and fast rule can be laid down for this
pinching, but, roughly speaking, all new growth beyond the second
joint from the cluster should be pinched out as fast as it shows. With
most varieties, this means that the lateral is kept about eighteen
inches from the main stem. After a few years, well-developed spurs
form at the base of the original laterals, and from these spurs the
new wood comes year after year.

An alternative method of pruning is to permit the new canes to grow up
from a bud near the ground each season. When the vine is well
established, this new cane is fruited throughout its entire length,
the laterals being pinched as described under the spur method. This
method of pruning is known as "the long cane method." Gardeners hold
that they can grow better fruit with this than with the spur method,
but the difficulties are greater and the crop is not as large.

CARE OF THE VINES

With the cultivation of all varieties indoors, more clusters set than
the vines can carry. This means that a part of the clusters must be
removed, an operation that depends on the variety and one that
requires experience and judgment on the part of the gardener. Roughly
speaking, half the clusters are taken, leaving the other half as
evenly distributed on each side of the vine as possible. The time to
take these clusters is also a delicate matter, since some sorts are
shy in setting and the clusters must not be taken until the berries
are formed and it can be seen how large the crop will be. As a rule,
however, this thinning of clusters may be begun as soon as the form of
the cluster can be seen.

It is very necessary also, especially with all sorts bearing large
berries, that grapes be thinned in the cluster. The time to thin the
cluster varies with the variety. Sorts which set fruit freely can be
thinned sooner than those which are shy in setting. On the one hand,
the thinning must not be done too soon as it cannot be told until the
berries are of fair size which have set seed and which have not;
however, if thinning is neglected too long, the berries become
over-crowded and