At Mr. Fuller’s place I saw fine examples of it.  Stubby vines with stems thick as one’s wrist rose about three feet from the ground, then branched off on every side, like an umbrella, with loads of fruit.  Only one supporting stake was required.  This method evidently is not adapted to our climate and species of grape, since in that case plenty of keen, practical fruit-growers would have adopted it.  I am glad this is true, for the vine-clad hills of France do not present half so pleasing a spectacle as an American cornfield.  The vine is beautiful when grown as a vine, and not as a stub; and well-trained, well-fed vines on the Home Acre can be developed to almost any length required, shading and hiding with greenery every unsightly object, and hanging their finest clusters far beyond the reach of the predatory small boy.

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.  When I say “bent over,” I do not mean at right angles, so as to admit of the possibility of its being broken, but gently and judiciously.  I cover with earth all my vines, except the Concords and Isabellas, just before hard freezing weather; and even these two hardy kinds I weight down close to the ground.  I have never failed to secure a crop from vines so treated.  Two men will protect over a hundred vines in a day.