64 ON THE TRAINING OF J^INES. 



wood, require as great a supply as the fruiting-shoots. 

 It is true, tiiat by pinching off the extremities of these 

 latter ones in tlie spring, an eye or two above the last 

 bunch of fruit, the sap will be partially kept back, 

 but the ascending current having set in very strongly, 

 it cannot be diverted into the other channels in which 

 it is required, except in a comparatively trifling de- 

 gree. But if, as represented in the above figure, the 

 shoots be trained in a serpentine manner in the early 

 part of the year, before the sap is in motion, it will, 

 in its ascent, be thereby made to flow more equally 

 into all the fruiting-shoots that push from them, and 

 also into those which will be emitted from the spurs 

 D, for future bearers. And by bending the bottom 

 part of the shoots pretty circularly at «, the buds will 

 there burst strongly, and thus a good supply of bear- 

 ing-wood will be obtained close to the arms Z, Z, 

 which is of primary importance ; for, if by injudicious 

 pruning or training, or both combined, the sap have 

 an opportunity of exerting its full force at a distance 

 from the arms, it is sure to embrace it, and the con- 

 sequence is, that blank wood begins immediately to 

 be formed in all directions near the stem, and when 

 that is the case, no method of pruning will ever again 

 procure a supply of bearing-wood at home, short of 

 that of cutting the vine down to a perfect stump. In 

 training the shoots 1, 2, 3, 4, the spaces between 

 them must be regulated by the number of shoots 

 intended to be trained up from the spurs D. Each of 

 these latter will require^z;e inches of clear space on 

 each side of it, and the former nine^ for the fruiting- 

 shoots, as represented by the dotted lines e,/, g^ A, at 

 the shoot 1. These shoots, producing on an average 

 two bunches each, are to be topped one joint beyond 

 the last bunch, as directed in the Calendarial Register, 

 June the 10th. 



For the foregoing reasons therefore, the method of 

 serpentine training may be considered preferable to 

 every other, being calculated in a greater degree to 

 check the too rapid ascent of the sap, and to make it 



