UX 
VITIS LABRUSCA. 
tops of the young shoots should be pinched off, in order that the sap may be as- 
similated into buds ; and in 
October, or soon after har- 
vesting the grapes, cut back 
the shoots of the same year 
and leave but four eyes to 
each ; as, by leaving too 
many, the vine becomes ex- 
hausted, and yields but little 
fruit, and is soon destroyed 
by premature decay. The 
shoots should be cut off in 
an oblique direction, opposite 
to, and about an inch and 
a half above, the fourth eye 
from the old wood, in such 
a manner as will shed the 
rain and allow the buds to 
suffer no injury from the 
wet. In the course of the 
month of May, the vines 
should be examined, and 
all the shoots from the old 
wood rubbed off; and if an eye of the last year's growth should be found to pro- 
duce twin shoots, the weakest of the two must be removed, in order that the 
remaining one may the better thrive. In the course of the season, the super- 
fluous leaves and twigs must often be thinned out ; and about the first of Sep- 
tember, as in the preceding years, pinch off the tops of the shoots, in order that 
the sap may assimilate in the buds that are to be reserved for the next year. If 
the vines appear to be too exuberant, they may be primed at the roots, without 
injury, at any season of the year. The most convenient period, however, for 
performing this operation, where the climate is mild, is in November, when the 
roots should be exposed to the light and air, by drawing away the earth, and 
letting them remain till spring ; but where the winters are severe, and subject to 
continued ice and frost, early in December they should be re-covered with earth, 
mixed with well-rotted manure, leaf-mould, husks and seeds of grapes, or the 
clippings and leaves of vines. If they remain exposed during winter, early in 
March the earth should be restored, and mixed with the manure or other sub- 
stances, as named above. This mode was called " ablaqueatio," by the Romans, 
and is still practised with advantage in some parts of Italy and Spain. 
Although spring and summer pruning of the vine may advantageously be 
adopted in all countries of the globe, yet in places exposed to the sun, with mild 
winters, pruning in autumn is thought to be the best, the most natural, at which 
time, trees and shrubs, by a divine and eternal law, drop both their fruit and 
leaves. " Snag pruning" is thought to be preferable by some, because, in " close 
pruning," the wounds spread, and prevent the protrusion of buds near the 
affected parts ; but if these parts be covered at the time of pruning, with a prep- 
aration of fine earth or white-lead, mixed with linseed oil, they will immediately 
heal. 
Mr. Loudon, in treating of the vine, mentions three modes of pruning it in 
hot-houses, viz. : the fruit-tree method, in which the plant is spread out in the 
manner of a fan, and trained like a common fruit-tree ; the long or young-wood 
method, in which all the wood above a year old is cut out down to the stool or 
stock ; and the spurring-in method, in which the fruit is produced from young 
