ON THE TRAINING OP VINES. 91 



sap will be so retarded, that many of the buds will not 

 burst at all. 



Now, to apply to a practical purpose this principle 

 of retarding the ascent of the sap, by depressing or 

 serpentining the shoots of a vine, it will be convenient 

 to treat of it in reference to winter training and sum- 

 mer training. 



Winter Training. When the shoots are nailed to the 

 wall in the early part of the year, those which are 

 trained at full length as fruit-bearers, are, in all cases, 

 to be cut down to the lowermost bud or two at the next 

 autumnal pruning. With respect, therefore, to all 

 such shoots, no greater supply of sap should be permit- 

 ted to flow into them, than is necessary to mature their 

 fruit, as all above that quantity will be so much nour- 

 ishment uselessly expended, and taken, indeed, from 

 the young shoots that are to be produced in the cur- 

 rent year for future bearers. For example, if the 

 shoots 1, 2, 3, 4, fig. 3, were trained in straight lines, 

 the sap would ascend with such force, that many of 

 the lowermost buds would scarcely break at all, the sap 

 passing by them, and accumulating in those at the up- 

 per part of the shoots, which would burst with great 

 force, and form very strong shoots ; these would rob all 

 the fruit on those below of its due share of nourishment, 

 and also the shoots emitted from the spurs D ; which, 

 to form good bearing-wood, require as great a supply 

 as the fruiting-shoots. It is true, that, by pinching off 

 the extremities of these latter ones in the spring, an eye 

 or two ^bove the last bunch of fruit, the sap will be 

 partially kept back, but the ascending current having 



