APPENDIX n. 



357 



preserve only the bud a, this bud is so near the old wood that 

 the shoot produced from it will bear no grapes. 



It will be best, then, to cut this shoot (Fig. 93) as short as 

 possible, to hinder the lateral shoot from increasing in length, 

 but in such a manner, however, as to preserve a bud far enough 

 from the old wood to produce grapes. Experience has shown 

 that in order to attain this double end, the shoots from varieties 

 of only a slight or average degree of strength should be cut 

 above the two buds tlie nearest to the base, one of these two 

 being that bud which, hardly visible, is on the base of the 

 shoot itself — that is, just where it springs from the stalk (Fig. 

 93). Two new buds are developed, and in consequence, two 

 new shoots. The branch will then present tbe appearance 

 shown in Fig. 95. 



Fig. 95. 



The shoot a has borne clusters during the summer. The 

 shoot B is too near the old wood to liave produced anything. 

 It is called the shoot of replacement — that is to say, it is that 

 intended to undergo the next pruning. For that, almost all 

 the old wood is cut from the top of the spur. Then the 

 shoot B is cut above the two buds nearest its base. During the 

 summer two new shoots are thus produced, and each year the 

 same method of pruning is repeated, so as to allow the old 

 wood to increase as little as possible in length, and keep the 

 fruitful shoots as near as possible to the direct channel of the 

 sap. Such is the method of pruning applied to the branches 

 intended to bear grapes for the table. 



There are, nevertheless, varieties so hardy that, should they 

 be subjected to this process, no fruit, or very little, would be 



