vine should consist of a stem extending from the
ground to a point below the top wire. From this, all but two canes and
two spurs of two buds each have been cut away below each wire level.
As growth is most vigorous at the top of the stem, four to six more
buds are left on the upper than on the lower canes. A vine of which
the stem reaches the upper wire the third year should support the next
season canes, aggregating twenty-two buds with eight additional buds
on the spurs. If the growth is weak, only half this number should be
left.

[Illustration: FIG. 18. Single-stem, Four-cane Kniffin training.]

The tying at this time consists of fastening the stem loosely, with
ordinary grape twine, to the lower wire, and with the same material
the canes are tied along the two wires to right and left of the stem.
The canes should be tied tightly toward the trunk so that they cannot
slip out of the twine. Ordinarily tying at this time is sufficient for
the year, but if conditions for growth are unfavorable, the twine may
rot before the tendrils take hold of the wires, and a partial second
tying may be necessary.

After the fourth season, the pruner has greater choice of
fruiting-wood for the following year. It may be chosen from the basal
canes of the preceding year's wood or the canes that develop from the
spurs may be used. The choice should depend on the accessibility and
maturity of the wood. At each pruning, the possibilities for obtaining
fruiting wood for the following year must receive consideration. It is
possible to use the same spurs for two or three years, but after this
they should be cut away and new ones retained. After the first
spurring, spurs should be selected from wood older than two years. The
shoots from such wood bear but little fruit and hence make good
fruiting canes for the next year.

_Umbrella Kniffin._

Since most of the fruit on vines trained by the Four-cane Kniffin
method is borne on the two upper canes, some growers in the Hudson
River Valley dispense with the lower canes and cut the upper ones long
enough to bear the crop. In this method the trunk is brought to the
top wire and the head formed as in the Four-cane Kniffin. When the
vines are pruned at the close of the third year, two long canes are
left at the head of the vine with two renewal spurs. These long canes
are drooped over the upper wire obliquely down to the lower wire to
which they are tied just above the last bud, forming an
umb