152 , Vineyard Culture. 



erwise its growth will be seen to languish, and its yield 

 diminish. 



From the preceding facts the following rules may be 

 established : 



1st. The vine ought to be pruned in such a way as 

 to produce, every year, a certain number of shoots, on 

 the two-year old vine [A, Fig. 55]. 



2d. These shoots [B, Fig. 56] might be pruned very 

 long with advantage, as regards the abundance of yield — 

 at A, for instance. But this mode of operating would 

 have the following disadvantages : all the eyes of this 

 stem are not developed into shoots, for want of suffi- 

 cient quantity of sap. The eyes A and B, alone, will 

 be developed, and this plant, the following year, will 

 have the appearance of Figure 57. The shoot A, will 

 be reserved as a new fruit-stem, and the balance will be 

 cut away. But the parent stock will thereby be length- 

 ened by B C, and if the same process is used each year 

 the parent stock will soon outgrow the proper limits, 

 and become languid and unproductive. Besides, the 

 bunches being too numerous, will yield nothing but an 

 inferior wine. This inconvenience might be avoided 

 by pruning the plant A [Fig. 561 at C, just above the 

 eye nearest to the base; The next year's plant will be 

 as in Figure 58. The shoot A, being also reserved, 

 and cut at B, the parent-stock will thereby lengthen 

 very little each year, but the shoots, growing so close 

 to the old wood, yield few if any grapes. Here, then, 

 is the practice which has resulted from the preceding 

 observations. 



All the weaker plants, whose shoots at the base are 

 sufficiently vigorous, are cut at two eyes. [D, Fig. 56.] 



