PRUNING AND TRAINING. 141 



furnished with plenty of nutriment, that it can not remain 

 healthy if it be restrained within moderate limits. But 

 this is a great mistake, and the sooner such ideas are 

 abandoned, the better it will be for the cause. 5th. The 

 vines being trained low, the fruit receives a greater amount 

 of heat than if more elevated, because it gets not only 

 the direct rays of the sun, but also the heat reflected from 

 the earth. This last is quite important in a northern 

 climate, where there is little danger of getting too much 

 heat. 6th. The mode is so simple that the most inexperi- 

 enced may understand it ; and when the vines are once put 

 into shape, the pruning ever after is so nearly the same, 

 there is scarcely any danger of going wrong. 



Fig. 50 represents a two-tier system of training upon the 

 same principle. It is equally as good as the single tier of 

 arms, but it usually requires one year more to perfect it, 

 and the trellis must be made considerably stronger, as its 

 height offers more resistance to the wind than in the former 

 mode of low training. 



It has one advantage over the other mode, as a larger 

 number of vines are planted to the acre, producing conse- 

 quently an increase in amount of fruit. It is particularly 

 valuable where land is very expensive, and the greatest 

 amount is desired from a given space. The vines are 

 planted four feet apart in the row, and the rows eight feet 

 apart, which gives 1,361 per acre. 



When the vines are pruned for forming the arms, every 

 alternate vine is cut back to within one foot of the ground, 

 and the others at the height of four feet ; the upper two 

 buds on each one are allowed to grow, and from these the 

 arms are made. Those that start at one foot from the 

 ground are bent down for arms on the lower bar, and those 

 at four feet are taken for arms on the middle or second bar ; 

 both sets are treated as directed for training a single vine. 

 Sometimes those vines that are left four feet long will not 

 produce canes sufficiently strong the first season to make 



