All intelligent pruning of the grape rests upon the fact that _the fruit is borne in a few clusters near the base of the growing shoots of the season, and which spring from wood of last year's growth_. It may be said here that a growing, leafy branch of the grape vine is called a _shoot_; a ripened shoot is called a _cane_; a branch or trunk two or more years old is called an _arm_. Fig. 1 is a shoot as it appears in the northern states in June. The whole shoot has grown within a month, from a bud. As it grew, flower clusters appeared and these are to bear the grapes. Flowering is now over, but the shoot will continue to grow, perhaps to the length of ten or twenty feet. At picking time, therefore, the grapes all hang near the lower end or base of the shoots or new canes, as in fig. 2. Each bud upon the old cane, therefore, produces a new cane, which may bear fruit as well as leaves. At the close of the season, this long ripened shoot or cane has produced a bud every foot or less, from which new fruit-bearing shoots are to spring next year. But if all these buds were allowed to remain, the vine would be overtaxed with fruit the coming year and the crop would be a failure. The cane is, therefore, cut off until it bears only as many buds as experience has taught us the vine should carry. The cane may be cut back to five or ten buds, and perhaps some of these buds will be removed, or "rubbed off," next spring if the young growth seems to be too thick, or if the plant is weak. Each shoot will bear, on an average, two or three clusters. Some shoots will bear no clusters. From one to six of the old canes, each bearing from five to ten buds, are left each spring. The number of clusters which a vine can carry well depends upon the variety, the age and size of the vine, the style of the training, and the soil and cultivation. Experience is the only guide. A strong vine of Concord, which is a prolific variety, trained upon any of the ordinary systems and set nine or ten feet apart each way, will usually carry from thirty to sixty clusters. The clusters will weigh from a fourth to a half pound each. Twelve or fifteen pounds of marketable grapes is a fair or average crop for such a Concord vine, and twenty-five pounds is a very heavy crop. [Illustration: 2. THE BEARING WOOD.]