310 



CASSELL'S POPULAK GARDENING. 



be necessary, as a free circulation of warm air is one 

 of the main factors in laying on colour, and time 

 is equally important in producing bloom and 

 finisli. But this must bo so managed as to pre- 

 clude aU chance of a check or chill, and closing for 

 a short time on fine afternoons must be indulged in 

 to swell the berries. If the weather through the 

 latter part of M^y is fine and warm, liberal ventila- 

 tion will finish up the grapes in a satisfactory 

 manner, when a lower temperature will be necessary. 



PBUmNG AND TRAINING. 

 Pruning. — The vine being a vigorous-growing 

 plant, it is necessary to prune away the greater 

 portion of the wood of the cur- 

 rent year, not only to keep it 

 within bounds and to carry out 

 any particular kind of training, 

 but also to concentrate its 

 vigour in the buds which are 

 left for producing new fruit- 

 bearing wood the following 

 year. As pruning and training- 

 may be said to go hand in 

 hand, the mode of the one is 

 governed by the other, the great 

 object being the maintenance 

 of a. healthy condition of the 

 vine under glass, and the pro- 

 duction of the greatest weight 

 of fruit which it is capable of 

 bringing to maturity through a 

 long succession of years. For- 

 merly, the long-rod system was 

 practised in every vinery, and it 

 is siUl resorted to where shy 

 kinds, such as Buckland Sweet- 

 water, Barbarossa, and a few others, fruit best on 

 rods of one year's growth. The method is that of 

 laying in a number of young canes and pruning them 

 to various lengths, so as to obtain fruit from the buds 

 which they contain. Dm'ing the time these rods are 

 carrying a crop of grapes, others are being trained 

 up to take their places after they are cut out at the 

 autumn pruning. Fortunately for the amateur, this 

 unsatisfactory system has given way to the close- 

 spur system, which is as simple as it is successful, 

 and may be performed by the uninitiated with the 

 greatest certainty of a satisfactory result. But, in 

 order to remove all doubt, it may be well to direct 

 attention to the annexed figures, which will illus- 

 trate at a glance the method which ought to be fol- 

 lowed, from the planting-rod to the fully-established 

 fruiting-cane, when spm-pruning becomes simply a 

 repetition of the system of cutting back to a single 

 bud. 



Fig. 18. — Spur 

 One Year. 



It may be well first to refer back to Fig. 13, page 

 235, showing the yearling cut back ready for plant- 

 ing ; also to Fig. 14, showing the young vine at the 

 end of its first year's gi-owth. Fig. 18 is a vine- 

 stem showing spur of one year's growth. Here the 

 lower spur (1) is properly pruned ; the upper spur 

 (2) is badly pruned. Fig. 19 shows a badly-prunel 

 spur of the second year ; while Fig. 20 shows a spur 

 of the same age which has been properly pruned. 



The great secret of success consists in pruning 

 every year to a single bud, as in Fig. 18, No. 1, 

 which keeps the young growths near home, while 

 No. 2 in the same figure results in long ungainly 

 spurs, which soon become imsightly and have to be 

 removed, as shown by the lines in the figures. 



Many good grape-growers are afraid of losing 

 or damaging their crop by pruning back to a 

 single bud, but if the wood is properly ripened 

 there need be no fear of their not showing fruit, and 

 that of the best quality, as the bunches from the 

 lowest buds are generally more compact and produce 

 finer berries than those from more prominent eyes 

 farther away from the main rod. When two or 

 three eyes are left, the most prominent invariably 

 starts first (see Figs. 19 and 20), and the lower buds 

 break weakly or not at all. The strong break shows 

 plenty of bunches, the weaker breaks are rubbed 

 off ; and so the mischief goes on, until the unsightly 

 spurs are obliged to be cut away, when the adventi- 

 tious buds at the base break and form new spurs, 

 but, it must be remembered, at the expense of a 

 crop, as the buds from these breaks rarely show fruit 

 the first year. 



Fig. 21 shows the properly pruned spur when it is 

 three years old, an age at which it will throw out 

 one, two, or three shoots. The strongest and best- 

 placed is selected for fruiting; the others may be 

 rubbed off, or sometimes one may be pinched to f oi-m 

 the base of a new spur, when eventually the old one 

 can be removed. 



Shortening the Rods.— If the fruiting-canes 

 were left five feet in length the first j^ear, from 

 three to four feet of young wood wiU be sufBcient 

 for the second year, and so on, until the rod is 

 formed and properly furnished with spurs up to the 

 top of the rafter. If, as was directed, aU the sum- 

 mer laterals were taken off in the autumn, from the 

 base up to the pruning-bud, the leader wUl simply 

 require shortening back to the required length, ac- 

 cording to the streng-th of the vines. Some leave 

 more than the three or four feet here recommended, 

 but bold shortening is always siie, as it throws 

 strength into the lower spurs, and every bud on the 

 leader breaks with vigour ; whereas a greater length 

 of rod very often breaks weakly at the base, and ao 



