ropelled tools, pride in hand labor has been left
behind, and few grape-growers now take time and trouble to become
expert in pruning. Simple as the work may seem to those long
accustomed to it, he who wants to put into his pruning painstaking
intelligence and to taste the joy of a task well done finds in this
vineyard operation an ample field for pleasure and for the development
of greater profits. The price to be paid by those who would thus
attempt perfection in pruning the vine is forward vision, the
mechanic's eye, the gardener's touch, patience, and pride in
handicraft.

Simple as pruning is, the pruner soon learns that it is an art in
which perfection is better known in mind than followed in deed. The
theory is easy but there are some stumbling blocks to make its
consummation difficult. It is an art in which rules do not suffice,
for no two vineyards can be pruned alike in amount or method, and
every grape-grower finds his vineyard a proper field for the
gratification of his taste in pruning. Happily, however, enlightened
theory and sound practice are in perfect accord in grape-pruning, so
that specific advice is well founded on governing principles.

One cannot, of course, learn to prune unless he understands the habit
of the grape-vine and is familiar with the terms applied to the
different parts of the vine. As a preliminary to this chapter,
therefore, knowledge of Chapter XVII, in which the structure of the
grape-vine is discussed, is necessary. The next step is to distinguish
between pruning and training.

PRUNING AND TRAINING DISTINGUISHED

The grape is pruned to increase in various ways the economic value of
the plant by increasing the quantity and value of the crop. This is
pruning proper. Or grapes are pruned to make well-proportioned plants
with the parts so disposed that the vines are to the highest degree
manageable in the vineyard. This is training. To repeat, the
grape-plant is pruned to regulate the crop; it is trained to regulate
the vine. Grape-growers usually speak of both operations as "pruning,"
but it is better to keep in mind the two conceptions. The distinctions
between pruning and training must be made more apparent by setting
forth in greater detail the results attained by the two operations.

_Results attained in pruning to regulate the crop._

Proper pruning of vines in their first year in the vineyard, which, as
we have seen, consists of cutting the young plants back severely,