PROPAGATING, PRUNING, AND TRAINING THE VINE. 



455 



laterals, pinching off the tendrils, and when the fniit is beginning to ripen 

 cutting off portions of the leaves, or sometimes entire leaves, to admit the 

 sun's rays to the fruit. In taking off leaves, the French very seldom remove 

 the petioles, but only the disk, or a portion of it. 



960. Training, — There are three modes in common use for pruning and 

 training the vine : — The long, or renewal system, by which the largest fruit 

 is obtained ; the short, or spurring-in system, by which the greatest number 

 of bunches may be grown in a limited space ; and the fan system, by which 

 the plant is made to ramify and spread out its branches, so as to have the 

 general appearance of a common fruit-tree. There are several other modes 

 of training the vine, because, as we have seen (793), the vine may be 

 trained in every form adapted for common fruit-trees ; but we shall only 

 notice the Thomery system, chiefly used in France, though in a less perfect 

 form it is adopted on the walls of cottages in some parts of England. The 

 vine differs from all other fruit-trees in this, that pruning cannot be dis- 

 pensed with even for a single year; this arises from the much greater 

 quantity of wood produced than is necessary for a crop of fruit. A peach- 

 tree, or any other tree, if totally neglected, may continue to bear annually 

 high-flavoured fruit on the outsides of its branches, because there they 

 would be exposed to a sufficiency of light and air; but the bunches of 

 grapes on a vine which had been left for a few years to itself, would be so 

 shrouded in leaves and shoots as to be small and without flavour. 



961. The essential points to be borne in mind when pruning and training 

 the vine, whatever mode be adopted, are to shorten the wood to such an 

 extent as that no more leaves shall be produced than can be fully exposed 

 to the light ; to stop all shoots produced in summer that are not likely to 

 be required in the winter pruning, at two or three joints, or at the first large 

 healthy leaf from the stem where they originate ; and to stop all shoots 

 bearing bunches at one joint, or at most two, beyond the bunch. As shoots 

 which are stopped generally push a second time from the terminal bud, the 

 secondary shoots thus produced should be stopped at one joint ; and if at 

 that joint they push also, then a third stopping must take place at one joint, 

 and so on as long as the last terminal bud continues to break. Bearing 

 these points in mind, nothing can be more simple than the pruning and 

 training of the vine. 



962. The long, or the 7'enewal system of pruning, is by many gardeners, and 

 also by Clement Hoare, the author of the best Treatise on the vine which has 

 ever been published, considered as decidedly, preferable to all the other modes. 

 It recommends itself, he says, "by its simplicity ; by the old wood of the vine 

 being annually got rid of ; by the small number of wounds inflicted in the 

 pruning ; by the clear and handsome appearance of the vine ; and by the 

 great ease with which it is managed, in consequence of its occupying but a 

 small portion of the surface of the wall." — {Practical Treatise, S^c, p. 95.) 

 Supposing a cutting planted where it is finally to remain, in autumn or in 

 early spring, then in the autumn following it may be cut down to three 

 good eyes, as in fig. 843. 



The second year rub off all the buds but the terminal one, the shoot 

 produced by which is to be cut down to three good eyes, as in fig. 344. 



The third year allow only the two uppermost buds to push ; and in 

 autumn head down the strongest one to six feet or eight feet, for bearing fruit 

 the following year, and the weakest to three good eyes, as in fig. 845. If 



