50 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
of the rafter, and, if its growth be very strong, is turned a little 
way horizontally and stopped. 
When the fruit is all gathered from the bearing branch, it is 
immediately pruned off close to the place whence it proceeded the 
year before; and when the foliage on the successor begins to wither 
and fall it is pruned. The apparent strength of the shoot and its 
perfectly ripened condition, (which is judged of by the firmness, 
the hardy brownness, and short-jointed character of the wood,) are 
the indications which direct the pruner as to the quantity of fruit 
which may be reasonably expected from it in the ensuing year. He 
has the entire power of the root to rely on, there being no rival 
but the young successor to be supported. But lest he should 
estimate the capability of the tree too highly, he thinks it best 
to err on the safe side; and therefore thinks well to deprive the 
shoot of two-thirds of its buds at pruning-time. By this mutilation 
he confines, or rather compels, the tree to perform only one-third 
of what it is naturally inclined and constitutionally organised to 
do, and thereby insures a perfect and vigorous development of the 
reserved buds. Add to this the advantage of a regular distribution 
of the energy of the vine by this dis-budding; because, by retaining 
number one, which is the topmost after the shoot is shortened, (say 
to somewhat less than the length of the rafter,) and numbers four, 
seven, ten, and so on, all the way to the bottom, exactly one-third 
of the buds will be left, and these alternating right and left with each 
other in the utmost regularity. 
It is very seldom that a shoot so treated fails to break all the way 
down; the topmost buds certainly burst first; but they being 
immediately stopped beyond the second bunch of fruit, do not con¬ 
tinue to pump up the sap from below, and rob the lower buds. 
Besides, if the gardener suspects anything of the kind may occur, 
he prevents it by bringing down the feeble shoot from a vertical 
to a horizontal position, along the bottom of the rafters, and keeping 
it there till all the buds are moving, when it is returned to its proper 
place under the rafter. 
As the buds burst and the fruit bearers have gained the length 
of four or five inches, the tender bunches scon appear; they are 
then closely watched, and as soon as two or three are visible, the 
point of the shoot is pinched off above the first joint beyond the fruit. 
And here the judgment of the manager must be exercised, in 
apportioning the crop to the probable capability of the tree: if he 
thinks two bunches enough on every shoot, he leaves them ; but 
