ON THE PRUNING OF VINES. 77 



CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE PRUNING OF VINES. 



PRUNING and TRAINING are so closely connected to- 

 gether, and so mutually dependent on each other, that 

 they almost constitute one operation. In pruning a vine, 

 regard must be had to the manner in which it is after- 

 wards to be trained ; and in training it, the position 

 of the branches must, in a great measure, be regulated 

 by the mode in which it has previously been pruned. 

 Nevertheless, the two operations are sufficiently distinct 

 to be treated of separately, although many observations 

 that will be made will relate as much to the one as to 

 the other. 



The chief object in pruning a vine is to increase its 

 fertility ; which is effected by cutting out the supera- 

 bundant wood which it annually produces, and adjusting 

 the number and length of the branches that are to re- 

 main, to the capacity of the plant for the maturation of 

 its next crop of fruit, and for the production of future 

 bearing-wood. The necessity for this operation will 

 appear evident when it is considered, first, that the 

 shoots of a vine which bear fruit one year, never bear 

 any afterwards ; secondly, that those parts of the 

 shoots that grow in the latter part of the summer, are 

 not sufficiently ripened to produce fruit ; thirdly, 

 that a great number of shoots, including those that push 

 from the bases of the buds, and which are thence called 

 lateral or side shoots, are too small, and otherwise unfit 

 to produce fruit ; and fourthly, that a vine in vigor- 

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