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wood, and are driven one or two inches from the vine on the side 
below the prevailing wind. This offers a support to the vine and 
reduces the strain on the tying string. 
STRUCTURE OF THE Buns. 
Some knowledge of the nature of the buds of the grape vine 
will help in understanding the reason for long or for short pruning. 
Two kinds of buds are found on a vine cane. At the base, 
axillary buds, or in some sorts, half-developed buds occur, which, if 
cut in two with a sharp knife and examined under a microscope, 
would show a core surrounded with scale. These buds are unfertile, 
and, if they grow at all in the spring, they form wood shoots. 
Higher up the cane, and the farther away from the base, the 
buds become more fertile; a section vf such buds show, around the 
core, microscopic grape bunches and tendrils. They represent, in 
embryo, the coming season’s crop. If, by some ageney or other, 
either wind, frost, or accident, the shoots issuing from them are 
destroyed, fresh shoots ate often produced, which are produced by 
less developed secondary buds, and the crop will, in consequence, 
be reduced. It is thus seen why some vines fail to bear fruit if 
they are pruned too short, and others overbear if too much wood is 
left on them. 
When it is admitted that the coming crop is present in embryo 
on the vine at the fime of pruning, it is easy to understand how a 
droughty season, or blights of some sort or other, by weakening the 
vine and stunting its growth, is not only detrimental to the visible 
crop, but also affect the next season’s crop as well. 
SYSTEMS OF PRUNING. 
“Pruning” and “training” differ, insomuch as pruning affects 
the growth and productiveness of the vine, and the quality as well 
as the quantity of the grapes; whereas training is purely conven- 
tional, and does not affect growth and fruitfulness to the same ex- 
tent. Training varies according to locality and to circumstances, 
and it is simply adopted for the sake of uniformity, and to facili- 
tate cultivation, dressing the vines, and gathering the grapes. 
Pruning leaves on the vine: spurs or spurs and rods in combina- 
tion. 
A “spur” consists of the basal portion of a cane made up of 
two full internodes or joints. This leaves two buds besides the basal 
bud. The strength and thickness of the cane from which the spur 
is made govern the number of buds. A thin and weak bud should 
be cut back to one bud, or even the base bud. A strong cane, on the 
other hand, can be left with three buds besides the basal bud. 
The methods of training are numerous and varied; the several 
systems of pruning, on the other hand, may be eut down to three 
main types, according to the length of spurs or of fruiting canes 
left on the vines, viz,. short, long, and mixed pruning. 
