192 Vineyard Culture. 



treme, allowing an indiscriminate and profuse production of 

 shoots and leaves, that must interfere with the perfect devel- 

 opment of the vine, and the proper ripening of the fruit. 



"He claimed that by a proper performance of the different 

 operations which make up the summer pruning of the vine, in 

 our attempts to furnish a renewal of wood, suitable to pro- 

 duce the next crop, these several objects should be kept clearly 

 in view : 



"1st. That we should prune in such a way as to avoid that 

 very common evil, the over-production of fruit. 



"zd. That we should prune so as to provide for the largest 

 development of the foliage, and for a renewal of the leaves 

 upon the fruit-bearing branches. 



"3d. That we should so direct the growth of the vine as to 

 insure the production of vigorous, healthy canes, to bear the 

 next year's crop. 



"And, lastly. That we might, under certain circumstances, 

 find it necessary to prune, or to train, in such a way as to 

 check the growth by extension, and endeavor to develop the 

 buds on the lower part of the canes that are to be appropri- 

 ated to the production of the next crop. These topics were 

 considered seriatim. 



" The first operation of summer pruning is therefore a 

 process for thinning the fruit, as well as for diminishing the 

 number of shoots ; but it does not follow that there will be 

 any less wood produced ; on the contrary, it will be found, 

 at the end of the season, that there is more available and 

 usefial wood, upon a vine that has had this important opera- 

 tion well carried out, than upon one which had been so 

 neglected that all its shoots had been allowed to remain, and 

 contend with one another to their mutual injury. 



" This first process consists in what is called rubbing out. \t 

 should be performed early in the season of growth — very early 

 — so soon as the young shoots have made their appearance, and 



