ing canes are left, as the necessary trimming off of tendrils and lat- 

 erals is more easily performed with them. 



SHORT AND LONG PRUNING. The winter-pruning of 

 the vine consists in cutting off a certain amount of the mature wood 

 of the immediately preceding season's growth (canes), and occa- 

 sionally of the older wood. The main problem of winter-pruning, 

 then, resolves itself into determining how much and what wood shall 

 be left. In all kinds of pruning most of the canes are removed en- 

 tirely. In short-pruning, the remainder are cut back to spurs of one, 

 two or three eyes. The number of spurs is regulated by the vigor 

 and age of the vine. This mode of pruning can be used only for 

 varieties in which the eyes near the base of the cane are fruitful. 

 For all other cases long or half-long pruning is necessary. 



In half -long pruning certain canes are left with from four to - six 

 eyes, according to the length of the internodes. These canes or fruit- 

 spurs will bear more fruit than short spurs for three reasons: I, be- 

 cause there will be more fruit-bearing shoots; 2, because the upper 

 eyes are more fruitful than the lower; and 3, because a larger num- 

 ber of eyes being supplied with sap from the same arm, each shoot 

 will be less vigorous and therefore more fruitful. Owing, however, 

 to the tendency of the vine to expend the principal part of its vigor 

 on the shoots farthest removed from the base of the canes, the lower 

 eyes on the long spurs will generally produce very feeble shoots. In 

 order, then, to obtain spurs of sufficient vigor for the next year's crop 

 it would be necessary to choose them near the ends of the long spurs 

 of the previous year, if no others were left. This would result in a 

 rapid and inconvenient elongation of the arms. In order to avoid 

 this it is necessary to leave a spur of one or two eyes below each 

 long fruiting spur, that is to say, nearer the trunk. These short wood 

 spurs having only one or two eyes, will produce vigorous canes for 

 the following year, and the spurs which have borne fruit may be re- 

 moved altogether, thus preventing an undue elongation of the arms. 

 In half-long pruning, however, it is very hard to retain the proper 

 equilibrium between vigor and fruitfulness. If a little too much wood 

 is left the shoots from the wood spurs will not develop sufficiently, and 

 the next year we have to choose between leaving small under-sized 

 spurs near the trunk and spurs of proper size too far removed from 

 the trunk. In long pruning this difficulty, as will be seen, is to a 

 great extent avoided. 



In long pruning the fruit spurs of half-long pruning are re- 

 placed by long fruit canes. These are left two or three feet long, or 

 longer. The danger here that the vine will expend all its energies 

 on the terminal buds of these long canes and leave the eyes of the 

 wood spurs undeveloped is still greater than in half-long pruning. 

 This difficulty is overcome by bending or twisting the fruit canes in 

 some manner. This bending causes a certain amount of injury to the 

 tissues of the canes, which tends to check the flow of sap towards 

 their ends. The sap pressure thus increases in the lower buds and 

 forces them out into strong shoots to be used for spurs for the next 

 pruning. The bending has the further effect of diminishing the vigor 

 of the shoots on the fruit canes and thus increasing their fruitfulness. 



