FRUIT-GARDENING. 121 



In training vines as standards, the single stem at the bottom 

 is not allowed to exceed six or eight inches in height, and from 

 this two or three shoots are trained or tied to a single stake 

 of three or four feet in length. These shoots bear each two or 

 three bunches, within a foot or eighteen inches of the ground ; 

 and they are annually succeeded by others which spring from 

 their base, that is, from the crown or top of the dwarf main 

 stem. This is the mode practised in the north of France and 

 in Germany. In the south of France and Italy, the base or 

 main stem is often higher, and furnished with side shoots, in 

 order to afford a great supply of bearing-wood, which is tied to 

 one or more poles of greater height. The summer pruning, in 

 this case, is nearly the same as in the last. In the winter 

 pruning, the wood that has borne is cut out, and the new wood 

 shortened, in cold situations, to three or four eyes, and in 

 warmer places to six or eight eyes. 



PINCHING AND RUBBING OFF BUDS. 



Nicoll observes that " most of the summer pruning of vines 

 may be performed with the fingers, without a knife, the shoots 

 to be displaced being easily rubbed off, and those to be short- 

 ened, being little, are readily pinched asunder." After select- 

 ing the shoots to be trained for the production of a crop next 

 season, and others necessary for filling the trellis from the bot- 

 tom, which shoots should generally be laid in at the distance 

 of a foot or fifteen inches from each other, rub off all the 

 others that have no clusters, and shorten those that have, at 

 one joint above the uppermost cluster. For this purpose, go 

 over the plants every three or four days till all the shoots in 

 fruit have shown their clusters, at the same time rubbing off 

 any water-shoots that may rise from the wood. 



Train in the shoots to be retained as they advance. If there 

 be an under trellis, on which to train the summer shoots, they 

 may, when six or eight feet in length, or when the Grapes are 

 swelling, be let down to it, that the fruit may enjoy the full air 



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