TIME TO PRUNE VINES. 129 



cane is cut back to a well-developed bud, and remains 

 perpendicular, or nearly so, then the upper bud is far 

 more certain to produce fruit than those below it. Or 

 if the young canes are bent (either by art or by their 

 own weight, as we see them in their wild state) so as to 

 check the flow of sap, and place the fully developed buds 

 in a higher position than those at the end, then they 

 will push out and produce bearing canes. Therefore, 

 the vine is said to bear its fruit at the top, as a rule, but 

 it does not strictly refer to the uppermost buds. 4th. 

 The fruit is produced upon the young growing canes, 

 and opposite to the first few leaves that are formed; 

 usually the first to third leaves formed will have a bunch 

 of fruit opposite; sometimes they will extend to five 

 bunches. When the shoot has produced its fifth leaf 

 without showing signs of fruit, then none need be 

 expected, for it is very seldom that fruit is produced 

 beyond that point. And as this rule is applicable to all 

 the varieties and species in cultivation, it renders it an 

 easy matter to regulate the quantity of fruit upon the 

 vine at the annual pruning, by simply leaving a certain 

 number of well-developed buds, estimating each one at 

 so many bunches of fruit. Not only is the fruit pro- 

 duced near the base of the young canes, but the best 

 buds for producing fruiting canes are found there also ; 

 for as these lower buds are formed early in the season, 

 they become more fully developed than those formed 

 later. Hence the necessity for cutting off the upper por- 

 tions of every cane in pruning, instead of leaving a part 

 of them at full length, and cutting others entirely away. 

 This, however, applies only to canes that are checked 

 in summer by pinching off the extreme ends, for when a 

 cane is allowed to grow six to ten feet, or a greater 

 length, the lower buds are very likely to be overgrown, 

 or smothered, and it becomes necessary to select buds 

 for fruiting higher up on them ; or, in other words, we 

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