BOOK I. 



CULTURE OF THE VINERY. 



545 



cultivated merely to enlarge the provision of wood, are divested of embryo bunches, if they show any ; 

 but are trained at full length as they advance during the summer, until they reach the allotted bounds : 

 were they stopped in the middle of their growth, it would cause them to throw out troublesome laterals 

 In the winter pruning, there will thus be a great choice of mother bearers. That nearest the origin 

 of the former mother bearer, or most commodiously placed, is retained, and the other or others on the 

 same branch are cut away ; the rest of the branch is also taken off 1 , so that the old wood may terminate 

 with the adopted lateral : the adopted shoot is then shortened to two, three, four, or a greater number of 

 eyes, according to its place on the vine, its own strength, or the strength of the vine. The lower shoots 

 are pruned-in the shortest, in order to keep the means of always supplying young wood at the bottom of 

 the tree. 



2969. The second method is to head down the natural leader, so as to cause it to throw out two, three, 

 or more principal shoots ; these are trained as leading branches ; and in the winter pruning are not 

 reduced, unless to shape them to the limits of the house, or unless the plant appears too weak to 

 sustain them at length. Laterals from these are cultivated about twelve inches apart, as mother bearers ; 

 those in fruit are stopped in summer, and after the fall of the leaf are cut-in to one or two eyes. From 

 the appearance of the mother bearers, thus shortened, this has been called spur-pruning. 



2970. The third method seems to flow from taking the second plan as a foundation, in having more than 

 one aspiring leader ; and from joining the superstructure of the first system immediately to this, in 

 reserving well placed shoots to come in as bearing-wood. Thus, supposing a stem, which has been 

 headed, to send up four vigorous competing leaders, two are suffered to bear fruit ; and two are divested 

 of such buds as break into clusters, and trained to the length of ten, twelve, fifteen feet, or more, 

 for mother bearers next season. In the winter pruning, the leaders which have borne a crop are cut 

 down to within two eyes of the stool, or less, according to the strength of the plant; while the reserved 

 shoots lose no more of their tops than is necessary to adjust them to the trellis. 



2971. M'Phail also describes three modes of pruning the vine; the first, or fruit-tree 

 manner, he calls the old method, the general shape of the plant when pruned and trained 

 being like that of a trained peach 456 



(Jig. 456.) ; the second he agrees 

 with Abercrombie in calling 

 spur-pruning (Jig. 455. ) ; and the 

 third he calls the long or new 

 method (Jig. 459.) ; " though," 

 he adds, " I understand by 

 books (Switzer and The Retired 

 Gardener}, that it was in practice 

 nearly one hundred years ago, 

 and I saw it in practice forty years 

 since." It is singular that this 

 old method of M'Phail should 

 have been recently described and 

 figured by a German horticul- 

 turist, as a new and " experi- 

 mentally proved superior method of vine culture;" Versuch einer durch Erfahrung 

 erprobten methode den Weinbau zu verbessern, von J. C. Kecht, Berlin, 8vo. 1813. 



2972. Forsyth^ s method of vine train- 457 

 ing nearly resembles that of Speechly ; 



but instead of laying-in the shoots in a 

 straight direction, either upright or ho- 

 rizontal, he bends and attaches them 

 in a serpentine form (Jig. 457.), which 

 has some effect in the open air, or 

 under gentle forcing, of making them 

 break more regularly: though even 

 this is denied by some, who contend 

 that, so treated, they break only at the 

 angles or bends. 



2973. Nicol's opinion, as to the dif- 

 ferent modes of training, is in unison with 



M'Phail's and our own. He says, " With respect to the manner in which vines should be 

 trained, opinions are at variance. Some advise training the shoots in a straight and 

 direct manner ; others in a horizontal manner ; and others in a serpentine form. If 

 grapes be otherwise well managed, they will do well in any of the above ways ; and I 

 have just to observe, with respect to the last-mentioned method, that it necessarily leads 

 to more confusion, particularly with regard to the training-in of the summer wood, than 

 either of the preceding methods. On dwarf-walls or trellises, the horizontal or zigzag 

 manner of Hitt (Jig. 386. g.) or Forsyth (Jig. 457.), may be very proper; but in a 

 properly constructed and properly planted grape-house, the most sensible manner of 

 training, in my opinion, is directly up the roof." 



2974. The first year after planting, " after the buds have sprung an inch or two, it will be proper to single 

 out those to be trained, and displace the others with the thumb. Three shoots only should be trained on 

 each plant ; that is, the two lowermost, and the uppermost, if it be vigorous; but otherwise displace it, 

 and train the next below it. As the shoots advance, they should be trained at the distance of ten or 

 twelve inches from each other; allowing them sufficient room in the ties to swell without being bound. 

 Pinch off all laterals as they appear, except one or two nearest to the point of the shoot, les,t by any accu 



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