28i THE FRUIT GROWERS GUIDE. 



vines have fresh life and vigour imparted to them by the renewal of the parts for 

 bearing. The growths are not stopped to any particular number of joints beyond the 

 fruit, but they are allowed to extend as the space admits without unduly encroaching 

 on other shoots, and no growths are tolerated except those that can have full exposure 

 to light. 



PRUNING. 



The object of pruning the vine is to concentrate its energies on growths for the pro- 

 duction of fruit. A newly-planted vine is cut back to two or three of its lowest buds, 

 and only one shoot is retained, in order that the sap, which would have been distributed 

 over an indefinite number of weak growths on an unshortened stem, may produce a 

 vigorous cane. In pruning for fruit many of the fruit -producing parts are cut off to con- 

 centrate the vigour on the buds left. These must be well developed. Basal buds are 

 generally the best matured, but they may be too weak to produce fruit, and it is useless 

 relying on faulty buds, or buds on unraatured wood, to afford shapely bunches of grapes. 

 Bold, round buds on well-ripened wood will invariably afford the best fruit. 



Spur Pruning. This method is applicable to vines with one or many rods. A 

 vine in its first and second years of spur pruning is shown in the illustration, Fig. 88. 

 In H is shown a vine that was shortened to the lowest wire of the trellis and 

 treated as described under " Training." It has two side-shoots, n and 0, and it is the 

 shortening of these to one or two buds that gives rise to the term spur. On the manner 

 of doing this depends a good or bad spur. The bud next the stem may produce a 

 vigorous shoot and a good bunch of grapes, but it is not always the case, for some vines 

 have the basal bud so small and ill nourished as to show fruit very indifferently on the 

 shoot produced from it. Free- fruiting varieties in the best condition may be closely 

 pruned so long as the vines continue satisfactorily productive. The first spur with 

 one bud is shown in H, 0, and the second year's spur is represented in /, u. The result 

 is a compact spur, which only increases a joint each subsequent season. This rigid 

 pruning keeps the spurs close to the rod, but the " hard-and-fast " line of adherence 

 to it often shows neatness but no grapes. The uninitiated are apt to make the 

 mistake of pruning vines too closely when they are unfruitful, for it is the amount 

 of energy expended by the leaves on the buds that renders them fruitful, and not the 

 mere concentration of sap on basal buds, which, from the smallness of the attendant 

 leaves, may not form grapes in embryo. When the growths are weak one-bud spurring 

 too often means sterility, and vines that have very small basal leaves and incon- 



