GENERAL AVTU3INAL PRUNING. 137 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GENERAL AUTUMMAL PRUNING. 



MANY reasons of a decisive nature point out the au- 

 tumn as the proper season for pruning the vine. When, 

 by judicious management, the branches of a vine are 

 kept within a small compass, its vegetative powers be- 

 come exceedingly vigorous ; and the quantity of su- 

 perabundant wood that is necessary to be cut out at the 

 close of every season, being, in general, very great in pro- 

 portion to that which is retained, the number of chan- 

 nels for the future ascent of the sap becomes, after the 

 general pruning, proportionably limited. In conse- 

 quence of this, the sap acquires at its rising, a corres- 

 ponding increase of strength and velocity ; and unless 

 the vine be pruned early in the autumn, in order that 

 the utmost possible period of time may intervene, to 

 harden the extremities and such other parts of the 

 branches as the pruning knife has passed over, previ- 

 ously to the ascent of the sap in the following spring, 

 the sap, at its rising, will burst through the wounds, 

 and the vine will bleed profusely at all points. To 

 guard against the occurrence of this very injurious 

 casualty, there is no other way than to prune at the- 

 earliest period possible in the autumn. 



The sooner, also, that the vine is pruned in the fall 

 of the year, the earlier will its buds unfold in the ensu- 

 ing spring ; the cause of which may be thus explained. 

 The buds, fronvtheir first developement, are endowed 

 with the power of attracting a sufficient quantity of 

 the juices of the plant, to nourish them, and to promote 

 their growth. But this power, although it gradually 



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