504 VINIPERA GRAPE TRAINING 



important, therefore, that they should be chosen 

 at the right height from the ground. From 

 ten to twenty inches is about the right height ; 

 the lowest for dry hillsides, where there is no 

 danger of frosts ; the highest for rich bottom 

 lands, where the vine will naturally grow large. 

 Vines grown without stakes will have to be 

 headed lower than this in order to make them 

 support themselves. In the following few years 

 the number of spurs should be increased grad- 

 ually, care being taken to shape the vine 

 properly and to maintain an equal balance of the 

 arms. 



In general, young vines are more vigorous than 

 old, and tend more to send out shoots from 

 basal and dormant buds. They should, there- 

 fore, be given more and longer spurs in propor- 

 tion than older vines. They also tend to bud 

 out very early in the spring, and are thus liable 

 to be frost-bitten. For this reason they are 

 generally pruned late (March) in frosty loca- 

 tions. This protects them in two ways. In the 

 first place, in unpruned vines the buds near the 

 ends of the canes start first and relieve the sap 

 pressure, and though these are caught by the frost, 

 the buds near the base, not having started, are 

 saved. In the second place, the pruning being 

 done when the sap is flowing, there is a loss of 

 sap from the cut ends of the spurs, which further 

 relieves the sap pressure and retards the starting 



