414 ANXUAL REPORT. 



awhile it forms what is known in grape culture as a forcing fruit-bud. 

 A forcing fruit-bud is one which is unfolded b}^ taking undue nourish- 

 ment from the vine at the expense of its vitality. Protect the same 

 bud longer, its sharp apex disappears and it becomes a full fruit-bud. 

 Have yon never noticed at the axle the large number of wood-buds 

 lying in there? That is nothing more than nature storing up too 

 much vitality; so that if you have too large a fruit-bud you are run- 

 ning to the same extreme as too small, by having in the summer, 

 three, four, or five shoots pushing from the same bud. 



It may be asked if in some cases a fruit-bud does not produce fruit? 

 I answer, yes. There is also another bud which appears, called an 

 "adventurous" bud, which will sometimes produce fruit, although the 

 bud is imperceptible to the grower in the spring. An adventurous 

 bud is one that appears in an unexpected place; for instance, on an 

 old cane you will find a shoot pushing from a place where you do not 

 see a bud; that is called an adventurous bud. It is produced by too 

 severe pruning. A wood-bud may sometimes produce fruit, but it 

 is done at too great an expense of the stored up vitality of the vine. 

 Thus summer pruning in its first results is the control by man of the 

 nature and place of the fruit-bud. When you once become acquainted 

 with the form of these three buds, pruning becomes a matter under 

 your own control. You must have an educated mind, a quick eye, 

 and a hand that never acts unless you ask yourself, "Why do I do 

 what I am doing?" 



When you prune the first time, reduce your vine from two to three 

 eyes. I recommend this that the root of the vine may never become 

 your master, but that you may become its master; so it is necessary 

 to prune from the very first. We start then, in the second season, 

 with two or three eyes. It is better to allow the second season two 

 canes to grow, so that if anything happens to the one you have the 

 other to fall back upon. After careful pruning at the end of the 

 season, the question comes, ''What form am I going to allow my vine 

 to grow in?" On that question depends all after culture. Probably 

 for the first three or four years some difficulty may be found in the 

 controlling of a fruit-eye. When you prune at the end of the second 

 season, prune one cane, if you wish to and can get a fruit-eye within 

 a reasonable distance; if it be a new variety, or if you are in haste to 

 see what your soil will produce, you may allow two or three bunches 

 of grapes to grow, remembering, however, that now comes the time 

 in which you must bend all your energies to keep your fruit-eyes 



