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THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Oct. 



stopped, to which all vines are liable that are not pruned until 

 they be on the point of being put into a vegetating state. 



Great has been the difference of opinion regarding the 

 manner in which vines ought to be pruned ; and every one who 

 has either wTitten or practised, as a matter of course, lays 

 much stress upon his own mode. We have already ob- 

 served, that neither the training nor pruning of this tree is of 

 that material consequence to the production of superior crops 

 as some other circumstances, which are connected chiefly with 

 the food with which it is fed, whether from the border in which 

 they are planted and supplied by the roots, or from the at- 

 mosphere in which they breathe and arc fed by the leaves. If 

 these two points be properly managed, the vine will be found 

 to produce abundant crops under a variety of modes of prun- 

 ing and training, as every person of observation must have 

 repeatedly witnessed, not only in the vineries in this country, 

 but also in the vineyards on the continent. To have a suffi- 

 cient supply of proper bearing wood, is the object aimed at 

 by every vine cultivator, and that mode which is adapted to 

 produce this effect is certainly the best. 



Some are advocates for long pruning, that is, laying in 

 shoots of great length, while others are satisfied with the short 

 shoots or spurs produced near the older branches, and the 

 whole length of which seldom exceeds a few joints ; others 

 probably with greater judgment, adopt a sort of intermediate 

 mode of pruning, by not only retaining some shoots of con- 

 siderable length, but also a number of short ones, as well as 

 some of the spurs. 



The vine is a plant of so accommodating a disposition, that 

 it is capable of being trained almost in any way that the fancy 

 may suggest. The mode of training them directly up the roof, 

 if planted in front of the house, or directly up the trellis, to 

 "which they are to be attached, if planted against the back wall, 

 is one as convenient and rational as can be adopted. There- 

 fore, in proceeding to give them their principal or winter 

 pruning at this time, some observation is necessary, so that 

 enough of bearing-wood may be retained, and no more ; and 

 that a reasonable portion of the old be removed, not only to 

 make room for succeeding young wood, but to induce a dis- 



