seems sufficient alone, as all the other operations follow and are necessitated by the methods of cutting or pruning-proper adopted.

Objects. The main objects of pruning, in the wider sense, are first, to give the vine a suitable form and to conserve this form; and second, to so regulate the bearing that the maximum quality and quantity of crop may be obtained for a long series of years at the minimum expense. Scope. The crop possibilities of a vineyard, both as regards quantity and quality, depend on many factors, of which the chief are the character of soil and climate, the amount of available water and the nature of the variety of vine. What part of these possibilities is realized depends on the operations of the vineyardist-on how he handles the soil and the vine. One of the most important of these operations is pruning. By improper pruning we may neutralize the most favorable conditions and destroy the effect of the most careful cultivation. The skillful pruner, on the other hand, gives his vines the opportunity to utilize to the full all the natural and cultural advantages. Many vineyards produce less than half their proper average crop owing to mistakes in pruning, and there are very few vineyards in the State where both the amount and quality of the crop could not be increased considerably by improved methods of pruning.

There are two great difficulties in the way of reforming the pruning methods in most vineyards. One is the difficulty of obtaining pruners possessed of the necessary skill and knowledge. The other is the lack of the proper knowledge on the part of the owner of the vineyard. Of these difficulties the latter is by far the most serious in its effects and its removal would in most cases obviate the greatest part of the trouble due to the former.

Some Results of Defective Pruning.-In order to emphasize the neces sity for proper pruning it may be well to consider some of the results of defective pruning as shown below:

1. Deficient average annual amount of crop, due to—

(a) Delay of bearing of young vines.

(b) Irregularity of development of vines.

(c) Failure to utilize properly full vigor of best vines.

(d) Lack of sufficient fruit buds.

2. Inferior quality, due to

(a) Over-bearing of weak vines.

(b) Irregular distribution of the grapes and consequent irreg

ular ripening.

(c) Injurious contact of grapes with soil, canes, and each other. 3. High cost of vineyard operations such as—

(a) Cultivation, plowing, hoeing.

(b) Pruning, suckering.

(c) Control of diseases, oidium, vine-hopper.
(d) Gathering, trimming, sorting, culling.

4. Shorter life of vines, due to—

(a) Pruning and cultivation wounds.

(b) Occasional over-bearing.

(c) Growth of suckers.

A young vine under average conditions in California should bear a paying crop at three years; that is, in the autumn of the third leaf or third summer in the field. At four years it should be practically in full bearing. Under exceptionally favorable conditions, bearing may be nearly a year earlier than this. In the cooler regions and with certain varieties, a year longer may be necessary. These results can be obtained

only when the pruning during the first years is properly done.

Irregularity of development of individual vines is incompatible with the highest returns for the whole vineyard. Vines dwarfed by defective pruning can not compete with their more vigorous neighbors and will fail to produce a full crop. Full returns from a vineyard can be obtained only when there is comparative uniformity of vigor in the individual vines. This uniformity can be obtained only by carefully adapting the pruning to each case. If vigorous and weak young vines are pruned alike, the former may bear nothing and increase their vigor, while the latter may bear worthless grapes and increase their weakness.

When the vines reach the age of full bearing, the failure to adapt the pruning to the individual case is equally disastrous. A method of pruning adapted to a weak vine would prevent a vigorous vine from bearing and waste its possibilities, while a method adapted to a vigorous vine would cause a weak vine to attempt to bear a large crop of worthless grapes and perhaps die in the attempt.

Certain methods of pruning may result in an abnormally large crop one year, though usually at the cost of quality. Such a crop is always followed by a small one. Alternate bearing of this kind diminishes the average crop of a term of years. The neglected possibilities of one year can be utilized by the vine only in part during the following year. Unless the pruner can distinguish the fruit buds he may fail to leave a sufficient number. The loss from this cause is the greater the more vigorous the vines, and with certain varieties than with others.

Bad pruning is a frequent cause of inferior quality. When the crop is too large for the vigor of the vine or even of a part of the vine, the grapes will be small, will fail to develop sugar, flavor or color and may dry up or sunburn before they are ripe. These defects are due not so much to the total weight of crop, which may not be excessive, as to the excessive number of individual grapes and bunches.

Bad pruning results in uneven and improper distribution of the grapes on a vine. This is particularly harmful to shipping grapes,

resulting in uneven ripening and coloring. The grapes are subjected to different conditions of light and heat according to their distance from the ground and to the degree in which they are shaded by the leaves or other grapes.

On a vine of unsuitable form, the bunches may lie on the ground and be contaminated by the soil and subject to mildew and mold, or they may be entangled with each other or with the canes, making it impossible to harvest them without injury or loss.

Not only is the crop diminished and the quality injured by bad pruning, but the cost of production is increased.

Vines of proper and uniform shape can be plowed, cultivated and hoed with a minimum of labor. Such vines can be pruned and suckered at much less cost than irregular, misshapen vines. The control of the vine-hopper is impossible and that of oidium and other diseases more difficult unless the vines are of regular, standard shape.

The harvesting of the grapes, especially of shipping grapes, is much simpler and more satisfactory if the vines are well pruned. The cost of trimming and the loss in culls are much diminished and the shipping qualities of the grapes improved by proper pruning.

Finally, the useful length of life of the vineyard depends to a great extent on the pruning. Bad pruning not only results in large pruning wounds in vital parts but exposes the vine to serious mechanical inju ries from the implements of cultivation. These wounds and injuries afford means of ingress to injurious parasites, borers of various kinds and particularly of infection by black knot and wood-rot fungi. Irregularity of bearing, also, not only makes the vine more susceptible. to attacks of this kind, but occasional excessive crops may actually kill vines. Certain mistakes in pruning favor the growth of suckers, which appropriate the sap and cause drying up and final death of the crown and trunk.

Habit and Characteristics of the Vine.

Vitis vinifera. With a few unimportant exceptions, all the vines grown for their fruit in California are varieties of Vitis vinifera, a plant originating apparently in the region south of the Caucasus but now growing wild throughout Western Asia and the Mediterranean countries and cultivated wherever the climate is suitable.

It is sometimes called the European vine because grown in Europe more largely than elsewhere, though many of our most valuable varieties originated in Asia and Northern Africa. The varieties are sometimes spoken of as Californian grapes because they are not grown east of the Rockies or to any great extent in North America outside of California. They include all the varieties of vines grown in California except resistant stocks and a few Labrusca or Eastern varieties such as Con

cord and Pierce, grown to a limited extent. This difference of species between the varieties grown in the Eastern States and those grown in California accounts to some extent for the differences in methods of pruning, though the difference of climate is an equal if not more important factor.

Vitis vinifera and its varieties, like all true vines, are sarmentose plants, that is, they possess long, slender, flexible trunks incapable of self-support and attaching themselves by means of tendrils to trees or other available support. If allowed to grow without restriction, they will grow to the top of high trees in a manner similar to the Labrusca vines of the Eastern States or the wild Vitis Californica of the Pacific States. (See cover cut and figure 1.)

In vineyards, the natural habit of the vine is modified to a remarkable extent, principally by pruning. Most cultivated vinifera vines are given the form of a low self-supporting shrub with a short, rigid, vertical trunk. This complete change of natural form is accomplished without noticeable injury to the vigor or productive capacity of the plant. In some cases, however, it may be carried too far and certain varieties require to be allowed to develop in a somewhat more natural direction.

Structure of a Cultivated Vine.-The cultivated vine has a permanent framework, consisting of root, trunk and arms, producing an annual growth of shoots, leaves and fruit above ground and of rootlets below.

The root and its branches extend in all directions through the soil wherever they find favorable conditions. Their extent is limited only by the competition of other roots or by mechanical obstructions. Their functions are to collect water and nutrient salts from the soil.

The trunk is usually vertical but may be in part horizontal. It varies in length from one to two feet in low vines and from three to six in high. Its functions are the conduction and storage of food materials and the support of leaves and fruit.

The arms are the smaller divisions of the framework attached to the trunk. They vary in length from a few inches to a maximum of about eighteen inches. They may rise radially from the top of the trunk (vase form) or along its whole length (vertical cordon). They may be in one vertical plane at the top of the trunk (fan-shape) or along the whole length of the trunk (horizontal cordon). Their functions are the production of young wood and the proper distribution of leaves and fruit.

The young wood produced each year by the arms is utilized to form the spurs and canes which bear the leaves and fruit. Its total length will vary in different cases from a few dozen feet to several hundred. In all cases from 90 per cent to 98 per cent of all the growth is removed at each pruning.

In order to discuss pruning intelligently, it is necessary to agree on the definition of the technical terms used. The terms and definitions employed here are in nearly all cases those used by the majority of

Californian grape growers. An attempt has been made to have them correspond as nearly as possible to the terms used in other countries and in the pruning of other plants. The main difficulty in this respect has been with the terms spur, sucker, water-sprout and lateral. In these