Inside the book

The first chapter analyzes Kolbe's method, beginning with the preparation and setting of cuttings and following the progressive formation of the vine against the wall from its first through fourth year. Schmidt treats the pruning of "Fruchtreben" (fruiting canes), winter protection, defense against spring frost, and the correction of old, irregularly trained stocks. The second one turns to Hardy ("directeur du Potager impérial", director of the Imperial Kitchen Garden at Versailles) and Jäger, introducing their newer systems of espalier training. Here the vine takes increasingly architectural forms, including the "Herzstamm" (heart-shaped trunk) and "Winkelzug" (zigzag cordon), with Schmidt proposing a combination of the latter with Kolbe's older practice. A later section moves from cultivation to household winemaking, treating vines in pots before following their grapes into the cellar. Its most mechanical passage illustrates a compact domestic press (fig. 30) and a sealed fermentation vessel fitted with a "Gährlufe" (fermentation airlock, fig. 31), with instructions for maintaining the must between 12 and 24 degrees Réaumur. The book closes with a priced list of varieties suitable for espalier and pot culture, available from nurseries in Frauendorf, Stuttgart, Erfurt, and Unterauach near Bamberg. Thirty-one in-text woodcuts accompany the instructions, showing successive stages of training, window and pier espaliers, and the apparatus of pressing and fermentation.