AXD WINE MAKING. 265 



each, always pruning to an outward bud, so that the 

 upper shoot, which will be the strongest, will grow out- 

 ward, as the object is to train the vine in the shape of 

 a hollow shrub, with as much light and air in the centre 

 as possible. This mode of training has been the uni- 

 versal one, and seems to be specially adapted to the Mis- 

 sion vine and some other varieties: Zinfandel, Victoria, 

 Chasselas, Malvaisia, and other short, stocky growers, 

 all produce well ttith it, and it is certainly very con- 

 venient and easy. If our vine has three shoots, or 

 branches, and is pruned to three spurs of two buds each, 

 these will give us six shoots, enough to form the future 

 head. In June, in this part of the State, the young 

 shoots are generally twelve to eighteen inches long. The 

 vine is then suckered, as it is commonly called, which 

 consists in rubbing off all barren and weak shoots, all 

 that may appear from the bottom and the stem of the 

 vine, and also all shoots that show a tendency to crowd 

 the head. This is also a good time to pinch the tips of 

 the remaining shoots, to make them more stocky and 

 shade the fruit better, as they will then throw out lateral 

 branches. I know that many consider this latter opera- 

 tion superfluous, and even injurious, but I have found it 

 very advantageous, especially as a guard against our 

 heavy winds, which have more power on the long and 

 straggling unchecked shoots, the vine balances much bet- 

 ter, and the fruit is less exposed to sun-scald. It is dif- 

 ferent in its effects from the cutting of the ripening 

 wood in August, which is absolutely injurious, checking 

 the growth, and robbing the vine of its leaves when they 

 are most needed to perfect and ripen the crop. For all 

 the Kiessling varieties, the Chasselas Fontainebleau, Vio- 

 let Chasselas, Seedless Sultana, and all those which make 

 longer growth of cane, especially the varieties of V. CBS- 

 tivalis, I think a different mode of training should be 

 followed, and the general experience of grape growers 

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