38o 



THE FRUIT GARDEN 



The best time for pruning is the spring, suflEiciently late to retard 

 growth, and so diminish the risk of danger from frost. The cut should be 

 at 1 1 cm. above the eye. In pruning the shoots it is necessary every year to 

 cut those which have borne fruit back to two buds. Fruiting growths are 

 pinched to one leaf above the bunch of grapes, other shoots from om.6o to 

 om.8o. In training the vine work with great care ; the young shoots are very 

 brittle. When a vine diminishes in vigour it must be manured, especially with 

 potash manures, and it must be pruned back short in order to restore the 

 vigour indispensable to its productiveness. The vine may even have to be 

 cut down just above the soil. This induces the growth of a vigorous shoot, 



Pruning a One-Year-Old 

 Vine Shoot 



Pruning a Vine Shoot, Three 

 Years Old 



which is afterwards trained up to take the place of the weakened one. 

 Annular incision sometimes gives finer bunches of grapes and hastens their 

 ripening. 



Let us first look to the formation, and we find that in the vine the 

 buds are alternate, and that it bears fruit on the shoots which are produced 

 by wood of one year's growth. The cordons are formed, of course, as each of 

 the vines arrives at the height where it should bifurcate into the T. The T.'s 

 in the "Thomery" form of training are formed by cutting to a bud at the 

 height of the iron-wire, and by taking the bud immediately below for the 

 opposite branch. This operation can also be done when the shoots are 

 green. 



The formation being acquired, every year a shoot on either side is taken. 



