THE GEAPE VINE. 



249 



worked well in amongst them. Its position should be 

 exactly in the centre of the trellis it is to be trained on. 



Priming. — It mnst first be observed that the grape 

 vine bears its fruit on shoots of the current year, pro- 

 duced from eyes on the previous year's wood. Fig. 124 

 represent the old wood, with its bearing shoot. It is im- 



Fig 



Fruit branch of the grape. The cross line towards the points shows where 

 it ought to be stopped. 



portant to understand this, because it shows the necessity 

 of keeping up a supply of young wood wherever we 

 desire fruit to be produced. 



To illustrate the pruning, we will suppose the plant to 

 be one or two years old, as ordinarily sent out from the 

 nursery. It may have only one shoot, or it may have 

 several. However this may be, all are pruned off bat 

 the strongest, and it is cut back to within two eyes of its 

 base. These two eyes will produce shoots, and when 

 they have made a growth of two or three inches, the 

 weaker one is rubbed off and the strong one trained up. 

 It is allowed to grow on till September, when the bud is 

 pinched to mature and strengthen it. Any side shoots 

 that appear during the summer, should be pinched ofi", as 

 well as any suckers that may appear about the roots. 



Second Year. — If the shoot of last year made a strong 



growth of ten or twelve feet, it may be now cut back to 



three eyes, and two canes be trained up ; but if it made 



only a weak growth, it should again be cut back to two 



11* 



