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.
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