SYSTEMS OF PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



193 



years, and it is claimed to be largely in use in the Hud- 

 son River grape-growing regions. The vines are planted 

 and trained during the first two or three years as in all 

 other of the well-known systems, but as they reach the 

 two horizontal wires on the trellis an arm is laid down 

 and trained to each, thus giving a two story and a four 

 arm vine, as shown in Fig. 75. From these arms the 

 young growth and bearing canes are allowed to hang 

 down and ramble about at will, as shown in Fig. 76, 



FIG. 76. 



instead of being tied up, as advised in the spur and arm 

 system. The lower wire is placed three and a half feet 

 from the ground, and the top one five and a half or six 

 feet. The annual pruning, when the vines become well 

 established, consists in cutting back all the canes of the 

 preceding season's growth, except those nearest the main 

 stem, employing these for renewing the two or four 

 arms ; but these arms are to contain four or five buds 

 each, according to their size and strength. 



Summer pinching and rubbing out of superfluous 

 buds is recommended, especially when large and fine 

 bunches are desired for market. Upon the whole, this 

 system is a kind of half-renewal, half-arm, or, to use a 

 common phrase, a hit or miss mode of pruning and 

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