GRAPE-VINE — PRUNING AND TRAINING. 347 



tice of the vignerons of Fontainebl-eau, as described in 

 tlie Pomone Francaise, or in the Lond. Hovtic, Trans. ^ 

 voh vii. (3.) From the peculiar mode of growth in 

 the grape-vine, the bearing branches have a tendency 

 to recede from the centre to the extremities, and are 

 often found in abundance only at the top of the trellis. 

 Every young shoot near the front of the house should 

 therefore be carefully husbanded, and cut back by way 

 of reserve. Old wood ought to be removed as frequently 

 as possible ; and the skillful pruner will look at least 

 two years before him. Nothing contributes more to 

 regularity in the succession of bearing wood than sim- 

 plicity in pruning and training; and, therefore, all 

 bending, and twisting, and trav^ersing of branches 

 should be avoided. 



The summer pruning consists in removing with the 

 fingers useless lateral shoots, and especially buds not 

 producing shoots, and in pinching off the tender- points 

 of the bearing branches. The extent to which these 

 bearing branches may be allowed to run must depend 

 on their "vigor, and the positian which they hold in 

 the plant. Sometimes it may be needful to leave them 

 ten or twelve feet long, but, in general, ^two or three 

 feet will be sufficient. - The shorter the better. Tliey 

 seldom or never fail to send out secondary laterals from 

 their points : these and the others which succeed them 

 are stopped at the second or even first eye, and the ope- 

 ration is continued until vegetation ceases. When the 

 young- grapes begin- to swell, the clusters are thinned 

 out, that is, berries are removed whenever tlrey are too 

 much crowded together, and the shoulders or sides of 

 the bundles are supported hy tneans of slender threads 

 of bast-mat attached to some fixed point above." The 



