Pruning Shears
notes: label: Description
content: Vineyard managers, workers, and winemakers don’t venture far into the vineyard without their pruning shears, often carried in a leather holster attached to their belts. These pruning shears were among the many used at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in California’s Napa Valley in 1996-97 for a variety of grapevine management tasks. Regular tending of the vines is an essential part of viticulture practice and helps ensure a good crop, the foundation for good wine.
label: Description
content: Pruning dormant vines in late winter is one of the most critical tasks. A pruner has to know what to remove and what to leave, and how to make an efficient, clean cut. This skill requires knowledge of the plant as well as the desired balance for shoot growth and fruit production. Pruning during the growing season helps maintain the shape of a vine, training it to adhere to the vineyard’s trellising system. While machines are often used on very large vineyard tracts, workers using hand tools accomplish pruning and trimming year-round on the smaller estate vineyards in Napa.
topic: label: Subject
content: Wine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
label: See more items in
content: Food
label: See more items in
content: FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000
label: Exhibition
content: Food: Transforming the American Table
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.0181.25
label: accession number
content: 1998.0181
label: catalog number
content: 1998.0181.25
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shears, pruning - short handled
label: Other Terms
content: shears, pruning - short handled; Winemaking
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: manufactured (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.5 cm x 26.4 cm x 13.5 cm; 31/32 in x 10 13/32 in x 5 5/16 in