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THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 43 
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bearing shoots. If all the eyes produced on the grooving shoots were allowed to break, there would be a 
crowding and confusion of foliage, and too many bunches of grapes would be produced. Now, as it is 
better to prevent a waste of the sap, than to remove either too many leaves or bunches after their 
production, the eyes must be thinned, if short-jointed wood, taking out two and leaving two (Fig. 4). 
This will leave the buds which are to form the future spurs upon alternate sides of the main stem, 
(Fig. 5). When the Vine again makes shoots, one or more bunches of grapes will appear at the third 
or fourth joint of young growth, which must be reduced to one only, and the young shoot beyond it 
stopped with the finger and thumb — thereby only allowing as much foliage as can be fully exposed to 
the light ; this stopping will cause other shoots to push from the axils of the leaves of the first shoot, 
which must not be removed, but stopped again at one joint froni their origin ; were they taken away 
entirely, it would have the effect of bursting the buds on the shoots which are to form the next year's 
spur. 
We will now suppose that a young shoot of the previous year has produced fruit for the first time 
during the past year, the shoots on which the fruit was borne, diverging at nearly right angles from 
the stem. They will now 
form what are technically 
called spurs, and are to 
be shortened back to 
m 
within one or two eyes of ' " yf~ 
their base. In addition ] 
to the buds formed on the Tig. 3. 
young wood, adventitious ones sometimes push from the base of the old spurs; these, if well placed, 
must be carefully retained in order to keep the spurs " at home," and prevent them becoming unsightly 
objects. Such is the mode in which what is called the spurring system is managed, although some 
cultivators prune the spurs off close to the stems of the Vine, and the crop is produced from buds which 
push out from the naked stems. This can only be applied to Vines of great vigour. 
The fruit of the Vine being produced by the wood of the previous year, there is another mode of 
procuring it, which is much practised also. It is called the long-rod system, and consists in having an 
annual supply of young canes from bottom to top of the house or wall. These have their buds thinned, 
as has already been described, but after producing fruit they are cut away, to be replaced by other shoots 
from the base. This system is more favourable to the production of fine grapes with the Muscat kinds, 
and the Dutch Hamburgh succeeds better so than by spurring. If large bunches are desired this is the 
way to get them ; but for grapes for market there is no better system than by spurring, the object being 
to obtain medium sized compact bunches, with perfect berries, of large size and good colour. 
There is a pruning of another kind — the thinning the berries. The skilful performance of this is of 
much importance, and the sooner it is done after the formation of them the better. The operator should 
be provided with a pair of fine-pointed sharp scissors, and should wear a thin, clean, and soft glove, to 
prevent the perspiration of his hands coming in contact with the tender skin ; his head should also be 
covered with a silk handkerchief, to prevent injury from contact with the hair. Too much care cannot 
be taken in the performance of this work. The thinning must be accomplished gradually, say at two or 
three times, taking care always to leave the most prominent berries, and to give greater space to the 
larger growing kinds. Frontigmms and Muscadines, with Black Prince grapes, are not improved 
beyond a certain medium of thinning the berries, and care must be exercised not to destroy the 
compactness of the bunch by immoderate use of the scissors. 
Early pruning is most desirable, nay, essential, for the Vine: it should be done as soon as the leaves 
fall, for this reason, that the roots arc slowly accumulating sap during (he period of repose, the whole of 
which is intended to support the buds in their young state : and of course the fewer they are in number 
the more vigour they must possess. The Vine, too, of all trees is least calculated to endure the evils of 
late pruning, and when this occurs it always bleeds, by which is meant that the sap exudes in copious 
quantities from the orifices of its channels, which have not the power of collapsing. The effects of 
losing a large quantity of this fluid just at the time it is most required, is to induce debility, and in 
extreme cases death. Various nostrums have been recommended as nuns lor bleeding, but it is best to 
prevent its occurrence. Wesay, therefore, prune early: or, as this term may apply differently to early 
forced or late Vines, prune as soon as they arc at rest. 
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