456 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Junx, 1902. 
spurs seen on short-pruned vines. If the lower canes are spindly it is a sign 
that the vine is being over-cropped, when the number of spurs should be 
reduced, or they should be pruned to one eye for a year or two. Make the 
section as nearly as possible in a plane with the top cane, and avoid making 
more than one cut. 
The suckers and watershoots of vines have, with few exceptions, non- 
fructiferous eyes. This must be remembered when pruning vines that have 
had the normal wood injured from accidents, in which case, when choosing rods 
and cordons, take only those canes which have issued from the previous year’s 
wood. Suckers are canes issuing from the stock below the ground. Water- 
shoots are canes issuing from all wood formed before the previous year. 
If, in short-pruned vines, the canes are long and thick, showing waste of 
vigour, it is better to utilise that vigour by means of one or two short fruit- 
rods, as in the mixed Royat system, instead of increasing the number of spurs ; 
and in long-pruned vines by increasing the length of their rods. When, 
however, the reverse is the case, and canes are spindly and weak, prune spurs 
to one eye each and decrease the length of the fruit-rods until the balance is 
obtained. 
The pruner should always keep his tools sharp, as by doing so he gets over 
his work quicker and makes cleaner cuts. He should never hurry his work, but 
take his time over it. 
Pruning is divided into two classes, short pruning and long pruning. By 
short pruning is understood, that the fruit-bearing spurs are restricted to two, 
at most three, eyes, not counting the dormant eye at the base of the spur. By 
long pruning is understood that the fruit-bearing spurs or rods number four 
eyes and upwards. These two classes are subdivided into several systems, the 
principal of which will be described, and there are also one or two systems in 
which the two classes come together called mixed pruning. These are, however, 
but a modification of short pruning. 
SHORT PRUNING comprises the following principal systems:—The Bush, 
the Royat or Unilateral Cordon, the Thomery espalier or Bi-lateral Cordon. - 
Lone prunineé comprises the following systems:—The Guyot, the 
Bordelaise espalier or double Guyot, the Cazenave. 
MIXED PRUNING comprises the mixed Royat; the Bush with fruit-rod. 
There are many other systems such as the Sylvoz, Chaintre, Vertical 
Ramone &c., but as they are unadapted to this climate it is useless to describe 
them. 
SHORT PRUNING. 
THE Busy Sysrem. 
Bush pruning is the system usually adopted when vines are not trellised, 
but are supported by stakes. The aim of the pruner should be to keep the 
vine low and to form and maintain the spurs at equal distances round the 
crown of the stock, also to avoid lengthening and crowding of the same. 
Supposing a cutting to have been planted in any fairly fertile soil, with a 
moderate rainfall it will have made during the year the growth shown in Fig. 
1. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the vine should be pruned back to 
one spur with two eyes as in Fig. 2; the exception is for strong growers in 
rich soil, when two spurs may be left as in Fig. 3. 
At the second pruning the vine will have made the growth shown in Fig. 
4. Choose two or three canes starting from the crown of the stock at the 
same level, and prune these to two eyes each, not counting the blind eye at the 
base of the cane, and then cut away all other wood close to the stock, and the 
vine will appear as at Fig. 5. Many writers on pruning lay great stress on 
making the section of the cane through the node above the last eye; theore- 
tically it is correct to do so, but it is seldom practised; examine the work of 
the most expert pruners and the section will be found as frequently elsewhere. 
So far as Queensland is concerned, the pruner may make his section any- 
where between the eyes with perfect safety, so that it be not too close to the eye. 
