THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



is stopped at the fifth or sixth leaf, has all fruit or tendrils cut off, and the laterals 

 pinched to one leaf, so that it forms good basal buds for bearing the following year. 

 The shoot bearing fruit has its energies so taken up that its basal buds are too ill 

 nourished to form grapes in embryo ; therefore it is cut clean away after fruiting, as 

 shown in J, ^, and the spurs are not more elongated than when the shoots are closely 

 spurred in to one bud. The extra growth is equivalent to extension, keeping the vine 

 in robust health. There is no waste of the vine's energies, but actual recuperation of 

 loss that would be otherwise experienced by continuous cropping through channels 

 impaired thereby. 



Leaving long spurs in pruning is disastrous when improperly carried out, as it 

 is in /, t. The upper bud breaks the stronger, and if that shoot x only is left, there is 

 enfeeblement through bearing and a spur twice as long as it need be, or would have 

 been had it been pruned to one bud, as in /, w, or if pruned to two buds, as in H, n, and 

 then treated as shown in /, y. 



The management of the laterals on the cane that is to become the rod is shown in 

 ff, q, that is, they are cut off quite close, and the cane is shortened so as to originate four 

 side growths at 18 inches apart, and a cane from the extremity in continuation of the 

 rod. To leave all the buds would result in too many shoots, and this is avoided by thin- 

 ning the buds, taking out r, and leaving two above them, so that the shoots to form the 

 spurs will be produced upon alternate sides of the rod, as indicated by the outlines. 

 Such shoots are spurred in to one or two buds, and the leader is shortened similarly to 

 that of the preceding year. This practice is pursued from year to year until a rod is 

 provided to occupy the space, when the pruning is exclusively that of the spur. The 

 vines then are at their best, and may produce fine clusters of grapes during several 

 years ; but the spurs gradually and certainly lose vigour, becoming so thickened and 

 elongated as to necessitate the removal of the rods and the production of others with 

 the essential spurs so as to maintain the vines in profitable bearing. The renewal of 

 the rods is shown in Fig. 89. 



Long Pruning. The long rod system in its integrity consisted in having an annual 

 supply of young canes from the bottom to the top of the house or wall. These, after 

 producing fruit, were cut away, and replaced by other shoots from the base. The 

 long rods only pushed strong growths at the upper part, those from the lower part 

 being much weaker. To remedy this defect the annual canes were shortened to about 

 half the length (page 279) they would have been left by long pruning. Long pruning 



