Pruning and Training the Vine. 



93 



owing to favorable soil, or excessive inherent vigor, will grow sufficiently- 

 strong to be ready for the trellis at one year's growth, but ordinarily two 

 years are required. 



It now becomes necessary to decide on the form and style of trellis and 

 the system of training and pruning to be adopted. A once popular, and 

 still prevailing style to some extent, is shown in this sketch. (Fig. 4.) 



Fig. 4. 



In most, I may say all, cases of old vines of this character that I have been 

 called on to prescribe for during the past few years, the bulk of the young 

 wood was at the top of the trellis. If, perchance, a young shoot had started 

 from near the ground and made a rampant growth, and the pruner had 

 courage enough to cut out an old cane, the new one was carried in its place 

 to the top of the trellis and there cut off. 



The buds on these young shoots, for some distance from the base, were 

 small and poorly developed, the sap having rushed past them too rapidly to 

 properly develop them as fruit buds ; consequently they start feebly, the 

 ascending sap accumulates in the buds at the top, pushing them into vigor- 

 ous growth, densely shading and impoverishing those below. The conse- 

 quence is, in a year or two at the most, the young cane is as naked as the 

 old one it replaced. The chief result of this system is little fruit and much 

 shade, and is fast giving way to other and better methods. 



In these diagrams, Figs. 5 and 6, I endeavor to illustrate the Thomery, or 

 what is more commonly known in this country as the Fuller system, from 

 the fact that that gentleman, in his book on grape culture some years ago 

 illustrated and recommended it, so that it became exceedingly popular. 



Fig. 



Fig. 5 shows the vine at the beginning of the third season, with the arms 

 in position. 



