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1 June, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. AG 
HINTS TO PRUNERS. 
Asin many vineyards in Queensland the vines have been improperly and 
insufficiently pruned from the first, it would not prove an easy matter to bring 
them back into shape and condition according to one or other of the systems 
above described, but a few words of advice how to set about it will not be out 
of place. To begin with, do not attempt to prune a vine that has been allowed. 
too many spurs straight away to its proper number; if that were done, the vine 
would probably die. The reformation must be gradual and spread over two or 
three years. Start by deciding on the system to be adopted in the future, such 
as the Goblet, Royat, or double Royat, for short pruning and the single or double 
Guyot, &e., for long pruning according to whether the stocks have been kept 
short or allowed to elongate. 
With an eye to the future shape of the vine, begin to cut away from a 
third to one-half of the spurs close to the stock, pruning off always the oldest 
and most scarred and distorted wood, leaving the youngest. Do not hesitate 
to cut away diseased wood and leave clean young wood, if only last year’s 
growth from the stock, as, although it will probably not bear grapes the first 
season, it will make a far healthier spur and give more fruit subsequently. 
The second year the same process is continuéd until the correct number of 
spurs adapted to the vigours of the vine is reached for short pruning, or the 
requisite wood-spurs and fruit-branches left for the long-pruned vines. In 
short, cut out old, diseased, and extraneous wood, leaving young wood at the 
proper intervals and positions for spurs or fruit-branches. 
Should any yigneron find it difficult and confusing in taking the first 
step towards bringing his vineyard into correct and systematic pruning, the 
writer will be happy to give any assistance in his power either with advice or 
practical demonstration. 
Adopt uniformity of pruning in vines of a class, although it may entail 
some trouble at first to bring the vines to shape ; if some are pruned one way 
and some another, there will be confusion and loss of time each pruning. 
Do not attempt to train your vine both high and low, as, according 
to law 2, the vigour of the vine will be directed to the upper branches, and 
the lower spurs will languish. Either train the vine exclusively high or 
exclusively low. 
The mournful object depicted at Fig. 12, Plate XXXVL., is a typical vine, 
badly pruned, to be met with in many Queensland vineyards. A more distressing 
example of floral poverty and wretehedness could hardly be found. Instead of 
keeping a single and undivided stock up to a certain point, the vigneron has, 
when the vine was two years old, permitted all the buds to develop long wood, 
with the result that now there are three stocks instead of one wandering pro- 
miscuously about at their sweet will. More than twenty-five spurs have been 
left to vegetate last season instead of six or eight; most of the shoots are from 
18 inches to 2 fect long, and the base of the spurs a mass of dead wood 
interfering with the circulation of the sap. 
To bring this vine into proper shape and condition is an impossibility, but, 
with a view to giving inexperienced vignerons some idea of the treatment for 
similar eases to improve its condition and give it a more rational shape, the 
same vine is shown pruned at Fig. 13, Plate XXXVI. 
A in Fig. 12, Plate XXXVI. has been cut away altogether, as there was 
Dd 
hardly any life in it, and B, the only strong shoot on the vine, laid down in its 
place; C has been cleaned of dead spurs, &c., and pruned to three spurs of three 
eyes each; D has been shortened, as the upper part was dead or dying, and pruned 
to four spurs of two and three eyes each; E has been shortened, as it straggled 
into the next vine, and pruned to one spur of three eyes; no other wood 
offering, the whole assuming the appearance of Vig. 13, Plate XXXVI. 
