PRUNING GKAPE VINES. 139 



classification, not only upon the system of pruning, 

 but of training; of Mclntosli, whose three systems are 

 " the spur," " the long-rod," and " the irregular " 

 forms; of McPhail, who has the " fruit-tree method ;" 

 " the spurring-in system" and " the long-rod sytem ;" of 

 Yon Babo, who has " head pruning," " limb prun- 

 ing," "frame pruning," and several sub-varieties 

 named after the localities in which they have been 

 adopted ; and most of our American authors, who have 

 simply the renewal and spur methods, with that given 

 above, we think he cannot but give his preference to 

 the latter. And as all systems of pruning with which 

 we have ever met may be easily referred to one or 

 the other of our four classes, we will describe them in 

 detail and give a few illustrations of each, as derived 

 from the practice of our best growers. 



I. The long-rod or renewal system is generally 

 attributed to Clement Hoare, who adopted it in his 

 " Practical treatise on the Cultivation of the Yine," and 

 as he has not seen fit to give the credit of it to prior 

 authors, most of his readers have awarded it to 

 him. But it is substantially the " new method " of 

 Switzer; the alternate system of Speechly, and the 

 " new and experimentally proved superior method" 

 of Kecht. It is certainly very old, though it is still 

 commonly called the " new method." 



The system which we have adopted as the best for 



