266 LOW TRAINING. 



1 



er growth, but I doubt the wisdom of such parsimony. The 

 most suitable time for tying is just after the flowering is over, 

 the young shoots have then attained a considerable growth, 

 and being weak require to be protected against the effects of 

 winds, which are apt to break them entirely off if not thus pro- 

 tected. In the operation particular care should be taken not 

 to interfere with the clusters of fruit, and the branches should 

 be separated as much as is convenient or consistent. 



It has been observed that the vines of our contry when in 

 their natural state, seldom or never throw out bearing shoots, 

 until they reach a lofty position near the tops of the trees 

 on which they ascend, when the branches assume a horizontal 

 or descending inclination. From this fact horizontal training 

 has been deemed preferable to that in an oblique direction or 

 fan form. Dr. G. W. Chapman, of New-York, states that by 

 experiments he has made, he finds that the shoots coming 

 from those branches bent downwards are more productive than 

 from the ascending ones. 



From a due consideration of all the attendant circumstances, 

 it seems necessary that we should adopt in the training and 

 consequent pruning of our native vines, some principles of 

 operation different from those usually applied to foreign ones, 

 it being a necessary requirement resulting from the great dis- 

 tinction in character, as the methods pursued most success- 

 fully with the one, would doubtless often prove inappropriate 

 and perhaps highly injurious to the other. 



Low training. 



The practice of low training was first pursued by the 

 Greeks, and was introduced by the Phocian colony into the 

 district of Marseilles. The knowledge of it has been spread 

 with the culture of the vine far to the north where it has been 

 generally adopted, and is esteemed the most easy and advan- 

 tageous for cold latitudes. Various modifications have how- 

 ever been introduced, and the height to which the vines are 

 trained varies from one to five feet. 



In Medoc, and also in the environs of Grenoble, Lyons, 

 Orleans, Autun, and even in some vineyards of Rheims, and 



