CHAPTER XII 

 PRUNING THE VINE 



The pruning of vines is confined to two different 

 systems, the rod-and-spur-pruned and the spur- 

 pruned systems. The varieties that are rod-and- 

 spur pruned have at their pruning their old rods 

 that is, their rods that have once fruited as well 

 as any canes of the new season's growth that are 

 not wanted for fruiting, either removed or cut back 

 to one bud ; while the selected canes, all of which 

 must be of the previous season's growth, are either 

 tied or twisted on to the wires, and it is the young 

 shoots that burst from t'hese canes at the following 

 spring that bear the next season's crop. 



With the spur-pruned varieties the previous sea- 

 son's growth is usually cut back to two buds, and it 

 is from the growth shooting out from these "spurs" 

 that the following crop is borne. 



As the sultana, currant, gordo, malaga, and dora- 

 dillo are at present practically the only varieties of 

 vine grown on a commercial scale on our irrigation 

 areas, it is not necessary to touch upon the pruning 

 of other varieties than these. 



ROD-AND-SPUR PRUNED VARIETIES. 

 The Sultana. If the sultana has been trained on 

 to the trellis during the second summer, and the 

 arms pinched back to about a foot in length, rods 

 will probably have grown out from some of the 

 buds upon the arms ; and upon a well-grown vine a 

 few of these canes can be left for fruiting purposes 

 at the second winter's pruning. 



