PRUNrNG GRAPE VESTES. 145 



suffered none except the selected one, to remain long 

 aft^r it had made its appearance. The management 

 of the young shoots of the year was, in this and the 

 following seasons, the same as I have before detailed. 

 " In the autumn of this, the third season, the lower 

 half of the house was furnished with a crop of ripe 

 grapes upon the wood of the preceding year, and 

 parallel to it on each vine grew a young shoot, 

 intended to bear the lower crop the next year; 

 whilst the upper half of the house had single shoots 

 trained from the end of the bearing wood, which 

 shoots were also to bear a crop the next year ; and 

 besides these, a third shoot on each vine had been 

 trained from the bottom bud, which I had not 

 removed, and which were about four feet in length, 

 having been treated as the weaker slioots in the 

 second year's management, which I have described, 

 and to which they were similar. "When this half 

 crop was gathered and the leaves had dropped, I cut 

 off the top leaders level with the uppermost wire of 

 the house to which they were tied, and the lower 

 leaders level with the middle of the roof (the top 

 and bottom leaders, or bearing wood for the next sea- 

 son, being each eight feet long), and the bottom or 

 weak shoot, above described, was cut down to the 

 second or third eye, as the lower shoot had been cut 

 in the preceding winter. All the spurs of the lowe^ 



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