124 THE GRAPE CULTUEIST. 



be winter killed. Even where the winters are not severe 

 it is best to leave one extra bud, because the sap will 

 usually recede from the part which has been cut, and 

 the end will become somewhat dried, if not injured by 

 cold. 



Where vines are laid down and protected in winter, 

 then the pruning may be completed at once, as no sec- 

 ond pruning will be necessary, the covering given to the 

 vines protecting them both from the effects of the cold 

 and dryness. Some vineyardists do not prune at all 

 until the latter part of winter or early spring, in which 

 case no extra buds should be left. There is a theory in 

 regard to time of pruning which is of very ancient date, 

 and as it has been, and is still, taken as a partial guide 

 by many cultivators, in pruning, not only the vine, but 

 other fruit-bearing plants, I will give the main points of 

 it as briefly as possible. According to this theory, when 

 cold weather first checks the growth of the vine it doea 

 not entirely stop the absorption of food by the roots ; 

 consequently the vine becomes surcharged with sap, the 

 liquid portions of which are partially given off by evap- 

 oration through the bark and buds, and the more solid 

 portions are deposited throughout the entire length of 

 the vine, so that each bud is equally supplied with its 

 quota of food with which to commence vegetation anew 

 in the spring. Now suppose a portion of the vine is cut 

 away early in the fall, it is evident that that which 

 remains has the whole root for its support, and it may 

 receive all the strength that would have been diffused 

 throughout the unpruned vine. The few remaining 

 buds will, of course, put forth in spring much more vig- 

 orously, and send out fruit-bearing wood in greater per- 

 fection than it is possible for an unpruned vine to do. 



I doubt the truth of this theory ; but, according to 

 it, the rule for pruning would be : If the vine is weak, 

 prune early that is, so soon as it sheds its leaves ; but 



