PRUNING IN CHAUTAUQUA 435 



"A large part of the pruning is done in the winter months 

 some beginning in the fall soon after the crop is har- 

 vested. Two grades of labor can be employed in this opera- 

 tionthe skilled and the unskilled. The man of skill, or the 

 expert, goes ahead and blocks out. He stands in front of a 

 vine of far more tangled brush than that seen in Fig. 282, 

 and, at a glance, tells by a judgment ripened by much ob- 

 servation, just how many buds are required to ballast and 

 not over-ballast the vine for another year. As the expert 

 stands before the vine making the estimate, he might be 

 likened to a man weighing a ham with steelyards, pushing 

 the weight backward and forward, notch by notch, finding 

 the point of balance. The expert, with his pruning shears, 

 makes a dive here and a lunge there, a clip at the bottom 

 and a snip at the top, and with a few more seemingly wild 

 passes, all wood is severed from the bearing vine, but the 

 number of buds desired to give fruit another year are left. 

 The unskilled help, who receives possibly a dollar a day 

 less than the expert, follows the expert, cutting the tendrils 

 and other parts of the vine that are attached to anything 

 but the trellis. The next process is ' stripping' the brush, 

 and it is one involving brute force, ragged clothes and 

 leather mittens. If the laborer does not put on a ragged 

 suit, he will be apt to have one before he is done with his 

 job. There is a little knack even in doing this work to the 

 best advantage. The dismembered vines still hang to the 

 upper trellis and often cling with considerable tenacity, 

 and a particular jerk or yank, more easily demonstrated 

 than described, is most effectual to land the brush on the 

 ground between the rows. - 



"The next operation is to haul the brush out to the end 

 of the row. Many tools have been devised for this purpose, 

 some of them involving considerable expense. It is now 

 the universal practice to use a simple pole one a little 

 larger than would be used to bind a load of logs, and not 

 so large as required in binding a load of hay. It may be a 



