ON TIIE PRUNING OF VINES. 85 



the shoots will have been pinched back in the early part 

 of the summer, just as the vine was entering its most 

 vigorous state of vegetation, and about to generate tho 

 very best description of fruit-buds. 



Secondly, the cutting down of the single shoot in 

 autumn to one or two buds, in order that it may pro- 

 duce in the next summer, a strong and vigorous shoot 

 to be reserved as a fruit-bearer, occasions to the vine 

 only one wound, but the pruning of the three shoots, 

 that have pushed from each of the spurs, will occasion 

 sixty wounds. This is another most serious evil, for 

 though a vine from its inherent nature commands an 

 immense volume of sap, and can, therefore, easily 

 overcome a wound here and there inflicted by the 

 pruning knife, it does not follow that it can overcome 

 these wounds when they are multiplied by scores, and 

 even by hundreds, without making such extraordinary 

 efforts as would materially compromise its vital ener- 

 gies. The fact is, that the immense number of wounds 

 caused by spur pruning, are highly injurious to the 

 health of a vine. 



If any doubt be entertained on this point, let a shoot 

 that has been spurred five or six years successively be 

 taken, and slit open lengthways, and it will be seen 

 distinctly, that the union which has annually taken 

 place betwixt the older and younger wood, has not been 

 effected without a considerable effort on the part of 

 the vine. At the points of union the sap vessels will be 

 all crippled, and in some instances the wood will be 

 found to have died back nearly to the centre of the 

 shoot ; and the sap being thus intercepted at so many 

 points in its ascent, flows through the parent limb to 

 the extreme horizontal shoots, thereby generating the 

 most vigorous bearing-wood at a great distance from 

 the stem of the vine. The proper juice of the plant is, 

 also, in its descent, very uselessly expended in vainly 



