CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



171 



Fig. 30. 



Fig. 30 illustrates the effect, the representation being ex- 

 aggerated in order to be 

 more clearly seen. The 

 laterals are seen to be 

 stronger at the top of the 

 shoot than near the base : 

 the foliage is also larger. 

 This is the natural conse- 

 quence of the strong up- 

 ward flow of sap. The 

 evil is felt not merely in 

 diminishing the supply of 

 secretions for the clusters at the base, but the fruiting- 

 eyes a or &, or even c, are by no means developed as 

 prominently as d and those above. This last evil has 

 been so severely ielt as to suggest the long-spur alternate 

 system of pruning. It is to obviate these evils that the 

 system of horizontal training of the branches as well as of 

 the arms is suggested. It is obviously reasonable to ex- 

 pect that the buds a and &, in fig. 31, will develop more 

 strongly as brought to the light and air by the arching 

 and horizontal position of the branch, at the same time 

 that the sap is retarded and elaborated for the benefit 

 of the fruit and lower buds. Even with the advan- 



