88 ON THE TRAINING OF VINES. 



vorable season, and also from shoots trained within 

 three inches of each other, as well as on aspects con- 

 siderably north of the eastern and western points of 

 the horizon ; but as there is some degree of uncer- 

 tainty attached in these cases, they are rejected in the 

 rule, lest the practical operation of it, might, in some 

 instances, be productive of disappointment. 



I know of no exception to this rule, for procuring 

 the development and formation of fruit-buds, except 

 in the case of a vine having been overcropped, or in 

 that of an exceedingly vigorous growth of the shoots, 

 the result of the soil being too highly manured. But 

 the former can never happen, if the quantity of fruit 

 borne by the vine, be proportioned to its capacity of 

 maturation, agreeably to the scale given in the former 

 part of this work ; and the latter can be easily reme- 

 died, by training the shoots in a curved direction. 

 Indeed, the principle of retarding the flow of the sap, 

 by curving or depressing the shoots, may be applied 

 with as much advantage to the training of the sum- 

 mer shoots of a vine, as to that of the shoots grown in 

 the preceding year. For, although by training the 

 summer shoots in the manner before mentioned, all 

 the buds developed will be fruit-buds, and -the num- 

 ber and size of their bunches be in a great measure 

 regulated by the duration and intensity of the solar 

 I'ays they enjoyed during their formation; yet the 

 number and more especially the size of the bunches 

 of fruit produced from a bud. can, without doubt, be 

 further increased by the application of this principle. 

 If a summer shoot, therefore, every time it is nailed 

 throughout the season, be bent or pointed in a differ- 

 ent direction to that in which it grew at the preceding 

 nailing, the vigor of its growth will be checked, and 

 the sap will immediately accumulate, and expend itself 

 in forming round, short jointed wood, and in the de- 

 velopment of the finest description of fruit-buds. 

 This is the key to the production of Icn^ge bunches 

 of fruit, which are not the necessary consequence of 

 very large-sized bearing shoots, but rather of sap that 



