SYSTEMS OF PRUNING AND TRAINING. 177 



upon what we of the present time call the renewal sys- 

 tem that is, the young canes are cut back every year, 

 and from buds on these are produced, not only fruiting 

 canes, but other buds, from which fruiting canes will 

 again be produced ; and thus two things are kept in 

 view, fruit this year, and fruit buds for the next, and 

 both in close proximity. By this method the vine pro- 

 duces an annual crop, never resting longer than nature 

 designed it should ; as nature seems to have appointed 

 a period for rest and for labor for all the members, of 

 both the animal and vegetable kingdom. But with this 

 known fact, so apparent to the observing mind, there 

 seems to have been men so anxious to assist nature, that 

 they overstepped her laws and endeavored to give her a 

 longer period of rest at one time, and more work at 

 another than she required, and in this way the alternate 

 renewal system of training the vine was invented. 

 Although this system of training may be, in some of its 

 various modifications, quite successful, the principle 

 upon which the whole structure rests is an erroneous 

 one, and if the same is transferred to the animal king- 

 dom, we might claim that the best way to treat a horse 

 would be to allow him to remain in perfect idleness one 

 year, and then work him up to his utmost strength the 

 succeeding one. It is true that a kind of half alternate 

 renewal system has long been practiced in some of the 

 various forms of training the vine, as, for instance, the 

 arms, or larger bearing canes are renewed every alternate 

 year, or at longer periods, but there is no year of rest in 

 these, for after the vine has reached maturity it is ex- 

 pected to produce an annual crop of fruit. 



In the first edition of this work I gave considerable 

 space to a description of a system of training the vine, 

 introduced by the late William Bright, of Philadelphia, 

 to which he gave the name of Single Stem Dwarf, Ee- 

 newal System. In this system the inventor attempted 

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