CULTURE OP THE VINE AT THOMERY. 309 



4. No more shoots should be permitted to grow than can 

 be laid in clear and handsome, and without confusion on the 

 trellis, and so as to admit the sun and air freely among the 

 branches. 



5. The laterals should be rubbed out of the wood branches 

 six or eight eyes high, and those that are permitted to remain 

 should be pinched in to one bud. The laterals on the fruit 

 branches should be rubbed out from the insertion of the shoot 

 to the uppermost fruit inclusive, and the others pinched in as 

 above. If the shoots are very strong, the upper laterals may 

 be allowed to grow, to take up a greater portion of the sap ; 

 but this should not be done unless there is danger of the eyes 

 bursting in the main shoots. Be careful always to keep the 

 shoots tied up near their top. 



6. Never leave more than five good eyes on a fruit-bearing 

 branch, unless your vine is confined to a narrow space, and 

 you are obliged to preserve only two or three fruit branches ; 

 in this case the length of the branch must correspond to the 

 nourishment it will receive from the plant. Select the roundest 

 and fairest branches for fruit, and the lowest and most feeble 

 for wood. The closer the buds are together, or the shorter 

 the joints of the branch, the better they are for fruit ; these 

 may in general be cut to three, four, or five eyes according 

 to their strength. But in vineries covered with glass, where 

 two fruit-bearing branches only are left on strong vines ; 

 twenty, thirty, and forty buds are sometimes left on fruit 

 branches. 



The foregoing rules will be sufficient for any one to form 

 a vineyard sufficiently large to supply himself his friends, 

 and the market with grapes." 



In cultivating vines to form bowers, cover arbours, &e. such 

 one of the modes of training can be adopted as may best suit 

 the purpose of the cultivator, and such varieties of vines be 

 selected as best accord to the locality. 



