PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



137 



buds in that position ; but we must prune the spur just 

 the same as though it were on the opposite side, and prob- 

 ably the next season the buds on the young shoot will be 



Fig. 47. 



Fig. 48. 



reversed, and we shall be able to bring our fruit spur again 

 into a perpendicular position. The lower bud will seldom 

 be produced two years in succession on the outside, as 

 shown in the above figure. 



It is desirable that the shoot from the lower bud on the 

 fruit spur should grow strong, as it is from this that we 

 take the two buds for the next season's fruit spur. As this 

 first or lower bud is seldom more than one inch from the 

 base of the shoot, and in many of our best short-jointed 

 varieties not more than a half-inch, it is obvious that we 

 lengthen the spur each year only the distance from the base 

 of the shoot to the first bud on it, be it more or less. The 

 annual increase in diameter of the arm, as well as that of 

 the spur, also lessens somewhat its projection above the 

 arm. Taking the average of some twenty varieties that I 

 have trained on this plan, I find the spurs do not increase 

 in length more than three fourths of an inch each year. 

 At the end of the fourth year the vine is considered as 

 established, and as another vine is at the same distance 

 from it with arms extending each way, of course the space 

 is all occupied, and the vines are to be confined within the 

 limits of eight feet each. The rows being six feet apart, 



