American Grape Training - An Account of the Leading Forms Now in Use of Training the American Grapes

By L. H. Bailey

This book contains an account of all the contemporary forms in use pertaining to the growing of grapes written as a guide for students of the craft. The subject of grape growing is a tricky one, and notoriously hard to teach to students in a traditional, lecture-based manner. Because of this, Bailey searched for literature with a more hands-on approach to growing, comprehensively detailing the methodology - but to no avail. As such, Bailey resolved to assimilate his notes on the subject and create his own material for his students and others, the product of which is this detailed guide. Although grape growing was a new and experimental endeavour, the principles contained herein are timelessly valuable and still constitute information fundamental to successful grape-growing - a must have for enthusiasts of the craft and those interested in its history. Liberty Hyde Bailey was a master of horticulture, botany, and cofounded the American Society for Horticultural Science. This book was originally published in 1893 and is republished now with an introductory biography of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Oct 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473376984

Book preview

AMERICAN

GRAPE TRAINING

By

L. H. BAILEY

An account of the leading forms now in use

of Training the American Grapes.

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

AMERICAN GRAPE TRAINING

Liberty Hyde Bailey

PREFACE.

AMERICAN GRAPE TRAINING

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION—PRUNING.

CHAPTER II. PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS FOR TRAINING—THE TRELLIS—TYING.

CHAPTER III. THE UPRIGHT SYSTEMS.

CHAPTER IV. THE DROOPING SYSTEMS.

CHAPTER V. MISCELLANEOUS SYSTEMS.

Illustrations

1. GRAPE SHOOT.

2. THE BEARING WOOD.

3. DIAGRAM.

4. SPUR.

5. RENEWAL PRUNING.

6. A NEWLY SET VINEYARD.

7. HORIZONTAL ARM SPUR TRAINING.

8. HORIZONTAL ARM. (Diagram.)

9. SHORT ARM SPUR TRAINING.

10. THE SECOND SEASON OF UPRIGHT TRAINING.

11. MAKING THE T-HEAD.

12. THE THIRD SEASON OF HIGH RENEWAL.—CONCORD.

13. HIGH RENEWAL, BEFORE PRUNING.—CATAWBA.

14. HIGH RENEWAL, PRUNED.

15. HIGH RENEWAL, PRUNED AND TIED.

16. HIGH RENEWAL WITH FOUR CANES.

17. HIGH RENEWAL COMPLETE.—CONCORD.

18. A SLAT TRELLIS, WITH UPRIGHT TRAINING.

19. FAN TRAINING, AFTER PRUNING.

20. WILLIAM KNIFFIN.

21. THE TRUE KNIFFIN TRAINING.

22. NO. 21 WHEN PRUNED.

23. A POOR TYPE OF KNIFFIN.

24. THE Y-TRUNK KNIFFIN.

25. UMBRELLA TRAINING.

26. A POOR UMBRELLA SYSTEM.

27. EIGHT-CANE KNIFFIN. (Diagram.)

28. OVERHEAD KNIFFIN.

29. OVERHEAD KNIFFIN.

30. OVERHEAD KNIFFIN, BEFORE PRUNING.

31. CROSS-WIRE TRAINING.

32. CROSS-WIRE TRAINING. OUTSIDE VIEW.

33. MUNSON TRAINING. END VIEW.

34. MUNSON TRAINING. SIDE VIEW.

35. HORIZONTAL TRAINING.

36. LOW POST TRAINING.

37. A YEARLING GRAFT.

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey was born on 15 March 1858 in the small town of South Haven, Michigan, USA. He was the third son of farmers Liberty Hyde Bailey Sr. and Sarah Harrison Bailey and possessed a keen interest in horticulture and botany from an early age. Bailey entered Michigan Agricultural College in 1878 and graduated four years later. In 1883 he became assistant to the renowned botanist Asa Gray; a remarkable achievement for a young man straight out of university. The same year as this success, Bailey married Annette Smith, with whom he had two daughters, Sara May, born in 1887, and Ethel Zoe, born in 1889. Moving on from his apprenticeship with Asa Gray, Bailey moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1885 and was appointed chair of Practical and Experimental Horticulture three years later. He enjoyed considerable success in this position and became an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1900. Bailey’s incredible rise throughout the academic and horticultural world continued on his appointment, by Theodore Roosevelt, as Chairman of the National Commission on Country Life in 1908. Roosevelt was a renowned lover of America’s farmland and countryside, and welcomed the 1909 report of the commission which called for rebuilding a great agricultural civilisation in America. Bailey strongly believed, in an agrarian tradition harking back to Thomas Jefferson, that rural civilisation was a vital and wholesome alternative to impersonal and corrupting city life. He especially endorsed family life, and the family farm as having a benign influence on societal responsibilities. Bailey’s real legacy was the themes and direction he gave to the new agrarian movement however, promoting inclusive as opposed to exclusive sociability, as well as welcoming technological progress. Bailey retired in 1913 to become a private scholar and devote more of his time to social and political issues. Before this date though, he was very involved in editing academic works; The Cyclopedia of American Agriculture (1907-09) and the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture (1900-02). He was also the founding editor of the journals Country Life in America and the Cornell Countryman. Bailey dominated the field of horticultural literature, and in total wrote sixty-five books, which together sold over a million copies. His most significant contributions to the field were in the botanical study of cultivated plants, notably emphasising the importance of Gregor Mendel’s work on cross breeding and hybridizing. Bailey died on Christmas Day, 1954. He has been memorialised at Cornell University, by dedicating Bailey Hall in his honour as well as Michigan State University who created the Liberty Hyde Bailey Scholars program, designed to incorporate Bailey’s love of learning with the wider expression and dissemination of this knowledge.

PREFACE.

THIS LITTLE book has grown out of an attempt to teach the principles and methods of grape training to college students. I have found such teaching to be exceedingly difficult and unsatisfactory. It is impossible to firmly impress the lessons by mere lectures. The student must apprehend the principles slowly and by his own effort. He must have time to thoroughly assimilate them before he attempts to apply them. I therefore cast about for books which I could put before my class, but I at once found that there are very few succinct accounts of the subjects of grape pruning and training, and that none of our books portray the methods which