186 THE GRAPE CULTUEIST. 



for renewing the arm annually or in alternate years, 

 except to test the theory of old wood resisting the free 

 flow of sap through it, as claimed by Professor Munson. 

 Reversing the Arms. There is an old German 

 plan of laying down the arms, which is quite the reverse 

 of those we have shown. Instead of the right-hand cane 

 being laid down to the right, it is bent over to the left, 

 and the left one is bent to the right, as shown in Fig. 67, 

 the object being to check the flow of sap, and cause the 

 buds to break more evenly than if the canes were laid 

 down without reversing them. It does have this effect 

 upon the canes, and there is no particular objection to 

 it, although the same results are secured when the arms 

 are curved down in the manner shown in Fig. 42. It 

 has been claimed, by those who advocate this mode of 



FIG. 67. 



forming the arms, that the check given the vine by thus 

 bending it, continues after the first year; this, however, 

 is very doubtful ; because, in the growth of the vine, 

 new cells are formed in the concentric layers of the 

 wood, which allow a free passage of the sap through 

 them, whether the vine is grown on a straight line or on 

 a curved one. 



German Bow System. This system is usually 

 referred to as the " German bow system," probably be- 

 cause it was first used in this country by some of the 

 German vineyardists of Ohio, but it is as much French 

 as German, although, as described in some of the French 

 works on grape culture, two stakes are used instead of 



