Some Grape Troubles of Western New York. 425 



GROUP 11. 

 Improper conditions of the vine. 



4. Stems shrivel before the berries mature. — From the peculiar 

 manner in which the lower en^d of the stems of fruit clusters 

 shrivel and dry, one would naturally be led to suppose that the 

 green wood failed to ripen. This shrivelling of the stem neces- 

 sarily cuts off the supply of nourishment from the fruit, which in 

 consequence drops. But the true question now is, what is the 

 cause of this shriveUing ? When that is answered, we shall have 

 the answer to the question regarding the cause of the shelling. 



5. Berries prematurely ripe. — This is little more than a mere 

 statement of the fact that when grapes are perfectly ripe they sep- 

 arate from the cluster in the same manner as do the shelled grapes. 

 That this ripening is premature is evident, for the large majority 

 of berries still remain upon the vines while the others are falling. 

 This theorj' throws no light upon the cause of the trouble. 



6. Pretiiature ripening of the zvood. — In case the wood of a 

 grape vine ripened prematurely, it would undoubtedly exert an 

 influence upon the fruit itself. The character of this influence 

 would probably vary with the age of the berries. If a cane bear- 

 ing clusters be broken during midsummer when the fruit is about 

 one-half grown, the berries will not fall to the ground, but they 

 will remain hanging upon the stems even after being perfectly dry 

 and shrunken. Although such wood is not properly ripened, it 

 resembles well ripened wood by not admitting of the free passage 

 of nourishing elements. The same result is obtained when a cer- 

 tain portion of a cluster is girdled by anthracnose. If such acci- 

 dents occur when the berries are fully grown or coloring, the effect 

 may be different, for then there may be sufficient nourishment 

 present to enable the berry to continue to ripen, although imper- 

 fectly, and to allow the natural separation of berry and stem to 

 take place. But even if it is granted that the shelling of grapes 

 is due to the premature ripening of wood we are still in search of 

 the cause of this ripening. 



7. Overbearing . — A vine overbears when it sets more fruit than 

 it can ripen without interfering with the production of a sufficient 



