162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



allowed to grow. They will have alternate spurs, or branches, 

 growing from every eye, which are to be pruned in the autumn 

 to one, two or three eyes, according to their strength. It is 

 desirable to keep the bearing wood as near to the old wood as 

 possible ; and to do this it will be necessary sometimes to cut 

 out occasional spurs to the lowest eye. These spurs, alternate, 

 over and under, will bear you fruit annually. If the buds on 

 the spurs are too close, rub out a portion of them, that the rest 

 may have sufficient light and air for healthy growth and for 

 ripening the fruit. 



But it is really of very little consequence what form the vine 

 takes — it may even be contorted into grotesque forms — it will 

 give you crops so long as it makes new wood for the bearing 

 spurs. You may grow your vine, at first, in any of those beau- 

 tiful forms pictured in works on grape culture, but -you cannot 

 keep them to that form. Some buds will die out, and others 

 push with such vigor where you do not want them, that they will 

 get out of hand. The trellis, with the grape trained with 

 diagonal arms and spurs, gives you, perhaps, the most enduring 

 form. Some, however, prefer the system called the renewal 

 system, which I proceed to describe. 



The renewal system of pruning consists in making and fruit- 

 ing long canes of the vine annually, instead of the short arms 

 of the spur system. Those who adopt this system usually lay in 

 upon the espalier two horizontal arms, right and left, from the 

 main stem, upon the lower bar of the espalier. At the autumn 

 pruning alternate spurs or shoots upon these arms are cut down 

 to one eye to make bearing canes for the next year ; and the 

 intervening shoots, carried to the top of the espalier, are fruited 

 in their whole length. The alternate single eye left at the last 

 pruning grows to the top of the espalier, and furnishes the bear- 

 ing wood for the next year ; those which have borne fruit are 

 cut back again to one eye, to make bearing wood for the next 

 year, and so on, ad infinitum. 



The objections to this system are, that on these long arms the 

 topmost buds push with great vigor before those near the base 

 of the cane, and those buds nearest the main stem of the vine 

 push with greater strength than the others, so that it is well 

 nigli impossible to keep the vine well balanced, and it is quite 

 sure to get out of hand before long. 



