THE VINE. ] 499 



sometimes associated with short pruning for the purpose 

 of increasing the production of grapes where the vines 

 are strong enough to bear the extra strain without 

 exhaustion, as in the method of Prof. Ottavi, and in the 

 Casalese method. A cane may be said to the pruned 

 long when at least five good buds are retained, and it is 

 long pruning pure and simple when no short spurs are 

 retained for fruit, but only for the reconstitution of the 

 vine or of a fruiting branch, as a detail of training. 



Generally speaking the fruiting canes are those 

 produced from wood of the preceding year's growth, and 

 canes arising from old wood being sterile, should be 

 removed, or if required for reconstructing the vine may 

 be headed back to two buds. For vines trained on 

 pergolas, trees, walls, or in any other way, this occasional 

 association of short pruning is often very recommendable 

 and even unavoidable, but as already hinted it is a train- 

 ing operation rather than pruning proper. 



The French method of growing vines spread over 

 the ground (chaintres or chaines trainantes), and a 

 similar method which is practised on a considerable scale 

 along the Italian riviera from Genoa to Spezia, belong 

 to the long pruning type, the ground doing the orifice of 

 a pergola, and the canes bearing bunches of grapes 

 being raised off the ground on short bifurcated prongs 

 without any ligature. Some of our older vineyards, as 

 at Bahria, are trained in this way, the old stems being 

 allowed to spread over the ground sometimes for two or 

 three metres, and short pruning is resorted to only when 

 it is necessary to renew an old branch which has become 

 too exhausted. 'I his system is by no means irrational, 

 and an abundant crop of grapes of good quality is 

 generally obtained, if proper care is taken to prop up 

 the mother-bearers as soon as the bunches become heavy 

 and begin to touch the ground, in order to avoid sunburn 

 or other injury to the growing grape, 



