414 AMERICAN GRAPE TRAINING 



weeks or more before the time at which the buds 

 usually swell. It is yet a moot point if this 

 bleeding injures the vine, but it is a safe practice 

 to prune early. The vine is cut off an inch or 

 two beyond the last bud which it is desired to 

 leave, in order to^avoid injury to the bud from 

 the drying-out of the end of the cane. 



The pruning is done with small hand pruning- 

 shears. The canes are often allowed to remain 

 tied to the wires until the pruning is accom- 

 plished, although it is the practice with most 

 growers who use the Kniffin system to cut the 

 strings before pruning. The removal of the 

 severed canes is known as "stripping." In large 

 vineyards, the pruner sometimes leaves the strip- 

 ping to boys or other cheap labor. The stripping 

 may be done at any time after the pruning is per- 

 formed, until spring. It must be done before the 

 growth starts on the remaining parts of the 

 vine, however, to avoid injury to the young buds 

 when tearing the vines off the trellis. 



SUMMER PRUNING. There is much discussion 

 as to the advisability of summer pruning. It is 

 essential to the understanding of the question that 

 the grower bear in mind that this summer prun- 

 ing is of two kinds the removal or "breaking- 

 out" of the superfluous shoots, and heading -in 

 or "stopping" the main canes to keep them within 

 limits. The superfluous shoots are such as spring 

 from small, weak buds, or those which break from 



