48 



only hastens tlic maturity of the wood, but enlarges the leaves and wood of the 

 shoot below, without taking perceptibly from its general vigor. If the stopping of 

 the main cane is done too early, or is made too short, the shoots for next season will 

 immediately put forth, and an autumnal crop will be produced. For instance, if. 

 after the vine had grown to e, or be3'ond it, it were pinched off at half its hight. 

 its dormant buds (those for next season) would immediately sboot, and if the vine is 

 of bearing size, flowers and fruit will soon follow. And in stop])ing the laterals, if 

 one leaf and the bud which it embraces are not left to shoot again, the primary or 

 dormant bud will shoot. On the other hand, if the laterals are suffered to grow on 

 at will without any suppression, they will not only take the sap that should go to the 

 nourishment and development of the primary buds for next season's operations, but 

 would divide the strength of the main cane among themselves, so that no good strong 

 cane or bearing wood could be formed. Only two laterals are shown in the engrav- 

 ing, and those only twice stopped, but one must be supposed at every bud with its 

 primary leaf, and all of them stopped as many times as required, according to the 

 rules above given. 



In training and developing this cane or stock we have been equally cultivating and 

 fostering the root, and without a well-developed and well-ripened cane of hard, close 

 wood, we can not have good roots ; hence the erroneous assertions that we often hear 

 made — ignorantly, I will charitably believe — that " although the top is feeble or un- 

 ripe, its roots are fine." Every good cultivator knows that they must, from their 

 mutual dependence, keep equal step, and that unripe root is no more useful than 

 unripe wood. Those who affirm that young vines that are suffered to trail on the 

 ground for want of tying up to stakes are not damaged by the injuries which the 

 leaves sustain in consequence, either speak ignorantly or dishonestly. The proof of 

 this has been furnished by innumerable trials, all showing the vast superiority of 

 the staked vines. 



After the planter has got a symmetric and well-developed cane, he can easily draw 

 the horoscope of his vine ; and if he has secured this from a young vine the first 

 season after planting, he has passed the point of danger with it in perfect health, and 

 with proper care, his onward course with it will be safe and prosperous — if he does 

 not yield to the temptation to overcrop. If he were to cut this at four buds or at 

 six buds, he might the next season have four or six canes, and twelve or eighteen 

 bunches of grapes. Or if his plant were a strong layer, the first season, instead of 

 the two bunches which we have taken with safety, it might have been pruned to 

 three eyes, and (all of them being suffered to grow) nine bunches might have been 

 taken. Under the best of treatment and with the best of vines, this has been often 

 done, the vines continuing to thrive, and three fold their crops each year. It must 

 be borne in mind in the first place, that extreme productiveness and extreme excel- 

 lence of quality are at all times opposed, in every kind of fi'uit, and this is more 

 especially noticeable in the grape than in any other. It is also opposed to size of 

 bunch and berry alternately, but often when only moderate in degree, not immedi- 

 ately. Often the bunches of excessive crops, for even two years, attain a great size, 

 but fail of acquiring full ripenees and flavor. But excessive productiveness is always 

 opposed to the health and durability of the vines ; and on this consideration, the 

 course of prudence is of the utmost importance, as will be clearly taught in the 

 course of the chapter. 



If it is desired to keep the vine as low as possible, cut the last season's cane (or 

 stock, for such it has now become) in pruning, if it is done in February, so that 

 two buds shall be left above at a, where the mark for cutting later is seen. The second 

 or third bud above will start earlier and more strongly, and the cane produced from 

 either of these will be, perhaps, a little stronger at the end of the season than from 

 one of the lower and smaller eyes. If "opposite canes" are to be taken, as shown 

 in Plate No. 45, it must be done from the eyes that are seen below a. The object to 

 be gained by cutting at two buds above the place from which the shoots are to be 

 taken at the February pruning, is to secure the safety of those buds. By cutting 

 immediately above them at this season, their life might be endangered, and at least 

 their strength would be impaired, in consequence of the wood drying back after 



