70 ON THE PRUNING OF VINES. 



but throughout the summer, when the weather is dry, 

 the young plants should be assisted in their growth 

 by the moderate application of liquid manure. Soap- 

 suds are the best for this purpose, but dung- water Avill 

 do very well, provided it be not too powerful. The 

 surface of the soil round the cuttings should never be 

 allowed to cake or get hard, but should be kept open, 

 and in a fresh and finely-pulverized state, by being 

 as often as necessary, forked lightly up. As the 

 shoots advance in growth, they must be constantly 

 kept staked, or nailed to the wall ; and their tendrils 

 and lateral shoots managed throughout the summer, 

 in the same manner as those of the layers. At the 

 fall of the leaf cut every plant down to the two lower- 

 most buds. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE PRUNING OF VINES. 



Pruning and Training are so closely connected 

 together, and so mutually dependent on each other, 

 that they almost constitute one operation. In pruning 

 a vine, regard must be had to the manner in which it 

 is afterwards to be trained; and in training it, the 

 position of the branches must, in a great measure, be 

 regulated by tl)e mode in which it has previously 

 been pruned. Nevertheless, the two operations are 

 sufficiently distinct to be treated of separately, al- 

 though many observations that will be made will 

 relate as much to the one as to the other. 



The chief object in pruning a vine is to increase 

 its fertility; which is effected by cutting out the 

 superabundant wood which it annually produces, and 

 adjusting the number and length of the branches that 



