GRAPE VINES ON OPEN WALLS. 23 



plant and its peculiar characteristics, being, in general, 

 but little understood. The immense quantity of 

 wood which a vine annually produces, and the force 

 with which its sap flows, causing its most vigorous 

 shoots to be formed at the extremities, render it ne- 

 cessary, in order to keep the plant in a good bearing 

 condition, and its branches within a reasonable dis- 

 tance of its stem, that the pruning knife should be 

 used to a far greater extent than is ever practised on 

 any other description of fruit-tree whatever. The 

 most severe manner, indeed, in which that instrument 

 is at any time applied to other trees, is as nothing 

 when compared with that required by the vine. 



In the course of the growing season, a vine in a 

 healthy condition, will make a quantity of bearing- 

 wood sufficient to produce ten times as much fruit as 

 it can bring to maturity. When this fact is consider- 

 ed in connection with another; namely, that the 

 wood which bears fruit one year, never bears any af- 

 terwards, and is therefore of no further use in that 

 respect; it will easily be seen to what a surprising 

 extent the priming knife must be used, to get rid of 

 the superabundant wood which the plant annually 

 produces. But nine parts out of ten of the current 

 year's shoots, and all those of the preceding year, if 

 possible, to be cut off' and thrown away, is apparently 

 so much beyond all reasonable proportion, and the 

 rules usually observed in pruning other fruit-trees, 

 that few persons ever possess the courage to attempt 

 it. And herein, as remarked before, lies the capital 

 error in the common method of managing the vine. 



A vine in the third or fourth year of its growth, 

 will in general show a few bunches of grapes, and 

 these are usually suffered to remain and ripen, in- 

 stead of beij]g plucked oft' as soon as they appear, 

 having been produced before the plant has sufficient 

 strength to mature them without injury to its constitu- 

 tion. Although the quantity be small, it inflicts a se- 

 vere blow on the vital energies of the vine, from the 



