CHAPTER IX. 



TRAINING THOMEEY. 



Tfiomery. Not withstanding all that has 

 been said and written about the Thomery, 

 there are few who have any just conception 

 of what it really is. There has been a failure 

 to understand its details, or to comprehend it 

 as a- whole. One thinks it consists in growing 

 vines in successive tiers, one above the other; 

 another supposes that it is some peculiar 

 manner of planting the vines ; still another has 

 an idea that it is some special or peculiar mode 

 of pruning, and so on ad infinitum. It is 

 simply no one of these, but all of them, and 

 more besides. The Thomery, in brief, consists 

 mainly of a happy selection and combination 

 of the best features of prevalent modes of 

 training, and their successful application to 

 overcome local difficulties of a trying nature. 

 This system takes its name from a little village 



