314 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



danger of over cropping the vine with its first crop. Not more 

 than twenty bunches of fruit should be allowed to remain, and 

 these should be of the largest and best placed. The thinning 

 should be done when the young grapes are as large as young 

 peas ; pinch these laterals, now bearing fruit, at four leaves 

 beyond the bunch you leave on ; this will generally be the first 

 or second bunch, the largest of course. If the laterals push 

 again, pinch at the second leaf as before. You will train up 

 the alternate shoots, pinching them at the top of the espalier, 

 and also all laterals as before. These are also to be the bearing 

 wood of next year. After the fall of the leaf, prune out all 

 the upright shoots which have borne fruit to one bud, and all 

 laterals from the new shoots which you have trained up for 

 bearing next year. 



This is the system known as the renewal system. It is well 

 adapted to the house or the espalier. If applied to vineyard 

 culture, you must have two poles to each vine, (after the third 

 year) cutting out each cane in alternate years. 



Spur pruning, however, is better adapted to field culture in 

 our climate, if I may trust my own experience. The vine is 

 not called upon to make so much wood, and after it is well 

 established, any intelligent boy who can handle a knife, can 

 prune the vine as well as a thorough-bred gardener. Train up 

 your vine as before, with a single stem ; cut out all laterals at 

 the end of the first year ; and cut back the main stem to 

 eighteen inches from the ground ; lead up a single stem from 

 the upper bud the next year, tying it to the pole and pinching 

 'when it has reached to the top of the pole, which should be six 

 feet high. Pinch all laterals, as in the renewal system, and if 

 the main stem is not strong, cut back to a strong bud. 



The next year you will make your spurs ; let them be alter- 

 nate, right and left, and as nearly equidistant as possible. 

 Pinch them in occasionally, and if side shoots push, pinch them 

 at the first leaf. Do not let the spurs grow more than half a 

 yard or two feet long, for you want strong buds at the base of 

 the shoot to bear next year. 



At the fall pruning, cut back the lowest spur to three eyes ; 

 cut out the second and third spur to one eye each ; this brings 

 you to the fourth spur, which is opposite the first ; cut this 

 back to three eyes ; proceed as before through the whole length 



