UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



BERKELEY, CAL. 



E. W. HILGARD, DIRECTOR. BULLETIN No. 119. 



DECEMBER, 1897. 



VINE PRUNING. 



BY F. T. BIOLETTI. 



The literature relating to the pruning and training of the vine is 

 already very voluminous, but there seems to be no one work which 

 treats the subject in a thorough and convenient way for California 

 vine-growers. Publications in English refer generally to methods 

 suited to the Eastern States or to hot-house cultivation, while for- 

 eign publications, besides being more or less inaccessible, treat the 

 subject 30 widely that the grower is at a loss what to choose from 

 such a mass .of material. It is the purpose of this Bulletin, there- 

 fore, to present a brief summary of what in foreign methods seems 

 useful and applicable to California conditions, together with the 

 results of experiments on the University of California vine plots, and 

 of observations made in numerou s vineyards in various regions of 

 the State. 



Almost every vine-growing district has its peculiar systems of 

 training, ranging from the non-training usual in parts of Italy, where 

 the vine spreads almost at will over trees planted for the purpose, to 

 the acme of mutilation practiced in many localities where the vine 

 is reduced to a mere stump barely rising above the surface of the 

 ground. These various systems will not be discussed here, but only 

 those which experience has shown to be most adapted to California 

 conditions. 



No account, however detailed, of any system can replace the in- 

 telligence of the cultivator. For this reason the general principles of 

 plant physiology which underlie all proper pruning and training are 

 discussed in connection with the several systems described. This 

 should aid the grower in choosing that system most suited to the con- 

 ditions of his vineyard, and to modify it to suit special conditions 



