BULLETIN 193. PRUNING THE SULTANINA. 155 



give an inflexible rule to follow. The ideal of a perfect vine should be 

 kept in mind and each vine pruned as nearly in accordance with this 

 ideal as circumstances permit. Fig. 6 and the illustration on the cover 

 represent nearly perfect three-year-old vines consisting of two or three 

 symmetrically placed spurs of two buds each ne"ar the top of the stem. 

 Sometimes it is necessary to leave a spur lower down (see Fig. 6, b}. 

 This spur will be removed the following year after it has produced two 

 or three bunches of grapes. Sometimes a vine may be very vigorous 

 but have only4wo canes properly placed for making spurs. In this 

 case the spurs should be left longer three buds and even in extreme 

 cases four buds long. 



PRUNING THE SULTANINA.* 



This variety has shown itself extremely irregular in bearing in many 

 vineyards of California. The variations in the crop of different years 

 in the same vineyard, of adjacent vineyards in the same district, and 

 of different vines in the same vineyard are very much greater than is 

 usual with most other varieties. The cause of this seems to be due, in 

 great part at least, to defective pruning. 



If we inquire into the history of any Sultanina vineyard we find very 

 commonly the following sequence of events: During the first four, live 

 or six years the vines were pruned short, grew with extraordinary 

 vigor, but produced very few grapes. The following year the owner, 

 hearing that long pruning was necessary, left two, three, four, or more 

 canes four or five feet long and tied them up vertically to a high stake. 

 This usually resulted in a large crop. The same method, as nearly as 

 practicable, was followed during subsequent years, with gradually 

 diminishing success, until about the third year of long pruning the 

 crops had become unsatisfactory again. 



The reason for this sequence of events is easy to comprehend when 

 we understand the principles of long pruning and the special charac- 

 teristics of the Sultanina. 



This variety bears well only on long canes, so that so long as short 

 pruning is practiced the crops are unsatisfactory. The first year in 

 which long canes are left the crop is good, because a large proportion 

 of the canes tied up consist of bearing wood. Provision is seldom made, 

 however, for the growth of new canes from the stump to furnish bearing 

 wood for the following years. The result is, that after the second or 

 third year all the bearing wood is at the top of the stake, and the vine 

 must be pruned short again or suckers and watersprouts left as long 



*This is the correct name of the " Thompson's Seedless." 



