PRUNING AND TRAINING-. 



237 



or joints, and the third year to four or five ; pinching off laterals, 

 tying up, and hoeing the vines as recommended above.. Replant 

 where failures have occured. The third year the vines will produce 

 a few grapes. Train two canes to the stake this year, and take off 

 laterals." We advise the cutting down or pruning to be done as 

 soon as the fall of the leaf in autumn, but any time when the frost 

 is not in the wood will answer. " Pruning the fourth year requires 

 good judgment, as the standard stem or stalk has to be established." 

 " Select the best shoot or cane of last year, and cut it down to six 

 or eight joints, and fasten it to the adjoining stake in a horizontal 

 position, or bend it over in the form of a hook or bow, and tie it to 

 its own stake. The ties should be of willow. This is the bearing 

 wood. The other cane, cut down to a spur of two or three eyes, to 

 make bearing wood for the next season. 



" ' Give the shoot the first tie on the stake nine inches from the 

 ground, and the second, nine inches above it ; then bow it over to 

 the neighboring stake in a horizontal position, and give it the third 

 tie to the stake, at that top of the vine.' 



"In the succeeding, and all subsequent years, cut away the old bear- 

 ing wood, and form the new bow, or arch, from the best branch of 

 the new wood of the last year, leaving a spur as before, to produce 

 bearing wood for the coming year, thus keeping the old stalk of the 

 vine down to within eighteen to twenty-four inches from the ground. 

 The vine is then always within reach, and control." 



Fig. 4. Fig. 3. Fig. 2.' Fig. 1. 



To show fall and summer pruning, the above figures are inserted. 

 Fig. 1. The vine second year before pruning. 

 Fig. 2. " " third " " 



Fig. 3. " " fourth << pruned. 

 Fig. 4.. '' " fourth " summer training. 



