pinch them beyond the last bunch. Should
any of the buds have pushed out two shoots, we rub off the weakest; we
also take off all barren or weak shoots. If any of them are not
sufficiently developed we pass them over, and go over the vines again,
in a few days after the first pinching.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.]

This early pinching of the shoot has a tendency to throw all the vigor
into the development of the young bunch, and the leaves remaining on
the shoot, which now grow with astonishing rapidity. It is a gentle
checking, and leading the sap into other channels; not the violent
process which is often followed long after the bloom, when the wood has
become so hardened that it must be cut with a knife, and by which the
plant is robbed of a large quantity of its leaves, to the injury of
both fruit and vine. Let any of my readers, who wish to satisfy
themselves, summer-prune a vine, according to the method described
here, and leave the next vine until after the bloom, and he will
plainly perceive the difference. The merit of first having practised
this method here, which I consider one of vast importance in
grape-culture, belongs to Mr. WILLIAM POESCHEL, of this place, who was
led to do so, by observing the rapid development of the young bunches
on a shoot which had accidentally been broken beyond the last bunch.
Now, there is hardly an intelligent grape-grower here, who does not
follow it; and I think it has added more than one-third to the quantity
and quality of my crop. It also gives a chance to destroy the small,
white worm, a species of leaf-folder, which is very troublesome just at
this time, eating the young fruit and leaves, and which makes its web
among the tender leaves at the end of the shoot.

The bearing branches having all been pinched back, we can leave our
vines alone until after the bloom, only tying up the young canes from
the spurs, should it become necessary. But do not tie them over the
bearing canes, but lead them to the empty space on both sides of the
vine; as our object must be to give the fruit all the air and light we
can.

By the time the grapes have bloomed, the laterals will have pushed from
the axils of the leaves on the bearing shoots. Now go over these again,
and pinch each lateral back to one leaf, as shown in Figure 12. This
will make the leaf which remains grow and expand rapidly, serving at
the same time as a conductor of sap to the young bunch opposite, and
shading it when it