come be healthy and the wood
well ripened. Pruning may be done at any time after the leaves fall,
though most growers give preference to late winter. In cold climates
it is a good practice to plow up to the young vines for winter
protection, in which case the pruning should be done before plowing.

Every detail of vineyard management should be performed with care and
at the accepted time in this critical first year. Cultivation must be
intensive, insects and fungi must be warded off, mechanical injuries
avoided, vines that have refused to grow must be marked for discard,
and the vineyard be put down to a cover-crop in early August if it was
not earlier planted to some hoed catch-crop.

_The second year._

Work begins in the spring of the second year with the setting of
trellis posts on which one wire is put up. The vine is not yet ready
to train but the slender lath of the first season is not sufficient
support, and the one wire on the future trellis saves the expense of
staking. Tying requires some care and is usually done with string or
bast. As the summer proceeds, suckers from the roots are removed and
some growers thin the shoots on the young vine; some think it
necessary also to top the growth if it becomes too luxuriant and so
keep the cane within bounds. Suckers must be cut or broken off at the
points where they originate, otherwise several new ones may start from
the base of the old. If the vines are topped, it must be kept in mind
that summer pruning is weakening, and the tips of shoots should,
therefore, be taken when small, the object being to direct the growth
into those parts of the vine which are to become permanent.

Pruning, the second winter the vine is out, depends on the vigor of
the plant. If a strong, healthy, well-matured cane over-tops the lower
wire of the trellis, it should be cut back so that the cane may be
tied to the wire; otherwise the vine should again be cut almost to the
ground, leaving but three or four buds. If the cane be left, in
addition to sturdiness and maturity, it should be straight, for it is
to become the trunk of the mature vine. The training of the young vine
is now at an end, for the next season the vine must be started toward
its permanent form, instructions for which are given in the chapter on
pruning.

The summer care of the vineyard does not differ materially in the
second year from that of the first. Intensive cultivation continues,
the vines are treated for pe