e; otherwise the
bud may die from the drying out of the cane. The canes are usually
allowed to remain tied to the wires until the pruning is done, though
growers who use the Kniffin method of training may cut them loose
before they prune. Two men working together do the work of pruning
best. The more skilled of the two severs the wood from the bearing
vine, leaving just the number of buds desired for the next season's
crop. The less skilled man cuts tendrils and severs the cut canes from
each other so that the prunings may be moved from the vineyard without
trouble by the "stripper."

Not the least of the tasks of pruning is "stripping" the brush and
getting it out of the vineyard. The prunings cling to the trellis with
considerable tenacity and must be pulled loose with a peculiar jerk,
learned by practice, and placed on the ground between the rows.
Stripping is done, usually by cheap labor, at any time after the
pruning until spring, but must not be delayed until growth starts or
the young buds may suffer as the cut wood is torn from the trellis.
The brush is hauled to the end of the row by hand or by horse-power
applied to any one of a dozen devices used in the several grape
regions. One of the best is the device in common use in the Chautauqua
vineyards of western New York. A pole, twelve feet long, four inches
in diameter at the butt and two at the top, is bored with an inch
hole four feet from the butt. A horse is hitched to this pole by a
rope drawn through the hole, and the pole, butt to the ground, is then
pulled between rows, the small end being held in the right hand. The
pole, when skillfully used, collects the brush, which is dumped at the
end of the row by letting the small end fly over towards the horse.
The "go-devil," shown in Fig. 14, is another common device for
collecting prunings.

[Illustration: FIG. 14. A "go-devil" for collecting prunings.]

THE TRELLIS

The trellis is a considerable item in the grape-grower's budget, since
it must be renewed every fifteen years or thereabouts. Wires are
strung in the North at the end of the second season after planting,
but in the South the growth is often so great that the wires must be
put up at the end of the first season. Trellises are of the same
general style for commercial vineyards; namely, two or three wires
tautly stretched on firmly set posts. Occasionally slat trellises are
put up in gardens but these are not to be recommended for any but
orn