THE VINE. ] 497 



to four or five buds, and henceforth these two spurs will 

 constitute the two branches of the vine. Each of these 

 two branches is allowed to develop two canes, and these 

 are pruned back to two buds, so that the typical vine has 

 always two branches having on each two spurs with two 

 buds. These two buds are, or are intended to be, fruit 

 buds, and at pruning time the cane which developes from 

 the upper bud is cut off, and that which is formed from the 

 lower bud is in its turn shortened to two buds, and so on. 

 c). The vase-shaped method (It. ^alberello, al- 

 berello a vaso. Fr. gobelet). This method is of ancient 

 origin, and with slight local variations is followed for 

 most specialised vineyards in France, Spain, Italy, Sicily 

 and Greece, and in some of its modifications it is 

 associated with long pruning, one or two canes being 

 pruned long to increase the production of the plant, as 

 practised in Sicily, particularly in the districts of Marsala 

 and Palermo, as well as in Tuscany. The method of 

 Professor Ottavi and that known as the umbrella shape, 

 are mere local modifications, and are more successful 

 with certain sorts of vines than with others. 



The typical vase-shaped vine has a stem from 20 to 

 50 c.m. high, with a minimum of three to a maximum of 

 ten divergent branches, as much as possible radiating 

 from the same level, each of the branches bearing a' 

 single spur pruned to one or two good buds. In the 

 first years of its life the younor stem is secured to a short 

 prop to grow straight, but afterwards no proping is 

 necessary. In France as well as in Sicily, the stem of 

 the vase-shaped vine is hardly more than 20 c.m. high at 

 the point of bifurcation into branches, and is often less, 

 sometimes the branches commencing quite close to the 

 surface of the ground. 



The pruning of the typical vase-shape, and indeed in 

 all cases of short pruning to a spur of one to four buds, 

 should be performed in two epochs. In the first epoch, 



32 



