Pruning is best done in the fall, but it can be done on mild days all through the winter months, even as late as the middle of March. Fall-pruning will prevent all flow of sap, and the cuttings are also better if made in the fall, and buried in the ground during winter. All the sound, well-ripened wood of last season's growth may be made into cuttings, which may be either planted, as directed in a former chapter, or sold; and are an accession to the product of the vineyard not to be despised, for they will generally defray all expenses of cultivation.
TRAINING THE VINES ON ARBORS AND WALLS.
This is altogether different from the treatment in vineyards; the first has for its object to grow the most perfect fruit, and to bring the vine, with all its parts, within the easy reach and control of the operator; in the latter, our object is to cover a large space with foliage, for ornament and shade, fruit being but a secondary consideration. However, if the vine is treated judiciously, it will also produce a large quantity of fruit, although not of as good quality as in the vineyard.
Fig. 14. and Fig. 15.
Our first object must be to grow very strong plants, to cover a very large space. Prepare a border by digging a trench two feet deep and four feet wide. Fill with rich soil, decomposed leaves, burnt bones, ashes, etc. Into this plant the strongest plants you have, pruned as for vineyard planting. Leave but one shoot to grow on them during the first summer, which, if properly treated, will get very strong. Cut back to three buds the coming fall. These will each throw out a strong shoot, which should be tied to the arbor they are designed to cover, as shown in Figure 14, and allowed to grow unchecked. In the fall following cut each shoot back to three buds, as our first object must be to get a good basis for our vines. These will give us nine canes the third summer; and as the vine is now thoroughly established and strong, we can begin to work in good earnest. It will be perceived that the vine has three different sections or principal branches, each with three canes. Cut one of these back to two eyes, and the other two to six or eight buds each, according to the strength of the vine, as shown in Figure 15. The next spring tie these neatly to the trellis, and when the young shoots appear thin out the weakest, and leave the others to grow unchecked. The next fall cut back as indicated by the black cross lines, the weakest to be cut back to one or two eyes, and the stronger ones to three or four, the spurs at the bottom to come in as a reserve, should any of the branches become diseased. Figure 16 shows the manner of pruning.
Fig. 16.
In this manner a vine can be made, in course of time, to cover a large space, and get very old. The great vine at Windsor Palace was planted more than sixty years ago, and in 1850 it produced two thousand large bunches of magnificent grapes. The space covered by the branches was one hundred and thirty-eight feet long, and sixteen feet wide, and it had a stem two feet nine inches in circumference. This is one of the largest vines on record. They should, however, be strongly manured to come to full perfection.