78 ON THE PRUNING OF VINES. 



duce in the next summer, a strong and vigorous shoot 

 to be reserved as a fruit-bearer, occasions to the vine 

 only one wound, but the pruning of the three shoots, 

 that have pushed from each of the spurs, will occasion 

 sixty wounds. This is another most serious evil, for 

 though a vine from its inherent nature commands an 

 immense volume of sap, and can, therefore, easily 

 overcome a wound here and there inflicted by the 

 pruning knife, it does not follow that it can overcome 

 these wounds when they are multiplied by scores, 

 and even by hundreds, without making such extraordi- 

 nary efforts as would materially compromise its vital 

 energies. The fact is, that the immense number of 

 wounds caused by spur-pruning, are highly injurious 

 to the health of a vine. 



If any doubt be entertained on this point, let a 

 shoot that has been spurred five or six years succes- 

 sively be taken, and slit open lengthways, and it will 

 be seen distinctly, that the union which has annually 

 taken place betwixt the older and the younger wood, 

 has not been effected without a considerable effort on 

 the part of the vine. At the points of union the sap 

 vessels will be all crippled, and in some instances the 

 wood will be found to have died back nearly to the 

 centre of the shoot ; and the sap being thus intercepted 

 at so many points in its ascent, flows through the pa- 

 rent limb to the extreme horizontal shoots, thereby 

 generating the most vigorous bearing- wood at a great 

 distance from the stem of the vine. The proper juice 

 of the plant is also, in its descent, very uselessly ex- 

 pended in vainly endeavoring to cover with a new al- 

 burnum these numerous scars made by the pruning 

 knife, around the edges of which it accumulates in 

 considerable quantity. 



Moreover, although by pruning a vine, its fertility 

 is increased, its existence is no doubt thereby short- 

 ened. The severing of a healthy branch from any 

 tree, is, without doubt, doing an act of violence to it, 

 the effects of which are only overcome by the superior 

 strength of the vegetative powers of its roots. By an- 



