THIRD YEAR'S PRUNING. 287 



all interested can find all this illustrated a mile and a half 

 from here, at my place, "Pomoland," where I should be 

 happy to see any of them. I can show them the whole thing, 

 in all its stages, at the present time. 



Now, at the commencement of the third year, the process 

 is this. I allow one shoot only to grow from each one of 

 these vines. The end vine of each row is, to some extent, 

 an oddity, and I will say nothing about that. I will take the 

 second vine. The growing shoot is led up to the first wire, 

 thence turning one way (they all turn the same way), and 

 grown along this wire during the season. The next vine is 

 carried up to the third wire, and grown along in the same 

 way to that. The next is trained on the first wire, and so on 

 in that way, alternately. If your vines have done well, you 

 will get a strong, horizontal shoot, six feet long. The object 

 is to grow this upright stem, and an arm six feet long, sup- 

 posing your vines are strong enough. Let them grow as 

 much as they will. All the laterals that show themselves 

 should be nipped out, excepting one leaf. That is, when a 

 lateral starts, you pinch off the point of it, after it has made 

 one good leaf. If it starts again, repeat the operation, and 

 do this as often as it occurs, being careful, however, not to 

 break off the point of the leading shoot, because, if you 

 break that, you lose two or three weeks in time, before it re- 

 covers its growth. When the shoot has grown six feet, the 

 end should be nipped off. You want to stop it at that point, 

 but not before that. If your vines have done well, they will 

 have made a very strong cane. 



Then they are to be pruned in the autumn of that year. 

 The pruning consists in simply cutting off the superfluous 

 laterals. If the growth has been small, cut it back in part. 

 If it is not capable of bearing anything the next year, cut it 

 back within one or two buds of its origin. Cut it back every 

 year, until it makes wood strong enough to bear the next 

 year, whether it takes two yaars or twenty years ; that is 

 the rule. If it is only strong enough to show a little fruit, 

 you may cut it back half way, and allow it to bear only half 

 a crop of fruit. If it is not able to bear even a single clus- 

 ter, then you may cut it down near the ground, and let it 

 start anew. 



