Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/132

 have been well selected, and the operation of planting, conducted with care, they will have sent out, at the end of the first year, a shoot from each of the eyes left above the surface; and, if the wood is sufficiently ripe, these must be pruned; but, if they have not attained sufficient consistence, the pruning must be deferred till the following year. The object of pruning, in this case, is to concentrate the juices of the plants, which would run the formation of crowds of useless shoots and leaves, to the strengthening or forming of one stock, or stem. In the first pruning, the shoot from the uppermost knot, or eye, should be entirely removed, and the other cut above the first eye. In the second year, if it be destined for a vine of from four to five feet in height, it should be pruned above three shoots, and the others removed close to the stock; for a lower vine, two shoots are sufficient; and for a dwarf vine, one, and this should be the lowest. In all cases, only the lowest eye should be left to each shoot.

In the third year, an additional eye may be left on each of the mother branches, which still ought to be confined to three, and should rarely exceed four, even in its most advanced state. Two mother branches are sufficient for the lower vine; that is, one which is allowed to grow from two and a half to three and a half feet in height; and it is only