8 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



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growth of the first year sufficiently, 

 the vine is likely never to acquire 

 that vigour of growth which is so 

 essential to the production of fine 

 grapes. Suppose a young vine to 

 have made during the first season one 

 long rod. If left alone, nearly all the 

 buds on the stoutest and ripest part 

 of that rod will produce next year a 

 bunch of grapes. For that very reason, 

 if for no other, the greater part of the 

 rod should be cut away. Here, for ex- 

 ample, is our young vine. 

 It may be six, eight, or 

 twelve feet long, where 

 Bhall we cut it to do 

 justice to it and ourselves. 

 We begin from the bot- 

 tom, and consider first 

 what sort of shoot we 

 want for next year. If 

 the vine has to pass 

 through a brick wall, and 

 then bend upwards to a 

 Fi g> 2 - rafter, we would select a 

 plump bud, so situated just above the 

 point where the bend takes place, 

 and cut to that bud, so that the 

 shoot from it would go forward 

 up the rafter in a straight line. 

 But if there are no peculiar cir- 

 cumstances to be considered, we 

 would prune it back to any bud from 

 the first to the sixth, choosing in that 

 series the plumpest bud of all. Count- 

 ing from the root, the sixth bud hap- 

 pens in this case to be the plumpest, 

 and, accordingly, we pass the knife 

 through as at a in the figure. 



You may now take your choice of 

 wood or fruit. If the cane is ripe 

 and hard, three or four of those buds 

 will present a bunch each, and a 

 shoot also. You may allow the 

 shoots to push and run right and 

 left, taking the shoot from the top 

 bud for a leader. But if there are 

 no peculiar circumstances to govern 

 the case, you will do best to rub 

 away the three lowest buds and 

 allow the other three to push. Then 

 as soon as fruit shows pinch it out, 

 and as soon as the leader has got a 

 good start remove the other two 

 shoots and you will have for your 

 pains a fine strong fruiting rod. 



But you may take from the vine 

 one bunch and one rod if it is in full 



vigour, and has a well-made border 

 to root in. In this case cut to the 

 third or fourth bud from the base 

 and allow one leading shoot to grow 

 for next year, and one bunch of 

 grapes for this year. Thus you will 

 taste the produce of your skill and 

 without overtaxing the strength of 

 your vine. If the rod formed by 

 this process of pruning is thin and 

 does not ripen to a nice brown 

 colour, it must be cut back the next 

 autumn in precisely the same manner. 

 But if it is a fine stout, hard rod, we 

 may allow it to bear eight to twelve 

 bunches. It must always be borne 

 in mind that the fewer the bunches 

 allowed the finer will be their 

 quality ; therefore to take all the 

 fruit a vine offers is to make sure of 

 a supply of inferior grapes and at 

 the same time weaken the constitu- 

 tion of the vine perhaps beyond 

 recovery. 



Long Rod Pktjning. — This is a 

 very simple method of pruning. 

 The principle of the long rod sys- 

 tem may be thus stated. Having 

 secured a good rod, it is allowed to 

 fruit, the number of bunches being 

 regulated by its strength; while 

 these bunches are swelling and 

 ripening, one strong rod is allowed 

 to grow from a bud at the base of 

 the bearing shoot, or from the same 

 part of the vine from which the bear- 

 ing shoot breaks away. We will 



call the fruiting rod, F. R. 1, and the 

 shoot trained from its base, S. 1. At 

 the end of the season F. R. 1 is cut 

 away, and S. 1 is trained in its place. 



