426 Bulletin 76. 



amount of healthy foliage and wood. Vines which have set too 

 much fruit show it in the comparatively little amount of new 

 growth, in the smaller size of the leaves and fruit, and in the 

 slowness with which the}- ripen their fruit. There are, of course, 

 mau}^ degrees of overbearing and appearances will not be identi- 

 cal in the different cases. In severe cases the berries grow slowly 

 and color slowly, and they may remain unripe until very late in 

 the season, or perhaps never ripen well. It has already been 

 stated on page 425 that grapes must attain a certain degree of 

 maturity before they part naturally from the stem. It is probable 

 that in some severe cases of overbearing the berries never reach 

 this point. I have seen, on Cayuga Lake, Catawbas which, dur- 

 ing the season j ust passed, had only begun to color on October 5. 

 Yet they did not shell. Other vines in the same vine3'ard, some 

 having much better colored fruit, did lose a few berries. These vines 

 appeared to be carrying too much fruit, still it was fairly well 

 colored ; similar cases were also seen in Keuka Lake vineyards. 

 The eflFects of overbearing are not limited to one season, but the 

 plant ma)^ suffer for a 3'ear or two on account of the weak condi- 

 tion in which it was left at the close of the first, and it is not im- 

 probable that this weakened condition may be exhibited by the 

 grapes shelling. Still, in visits paid to the vineyards of Chau- 

 tauqua count}' the yield per acre seemed to have little connection 

 with the degrees of shelling, and strong vigorous foliage was by 

 no means a proof that the grapes were not shelling ; in many 

 cases it was quite the contrary as regards the character of the 

 foliage. In fact, some growers have advanced the idea that the 

 vigorous foliage was the cause of the trouble. 



8 . Too much wood aiid foliage ; 



9. Too rich land. — These two theories can properly be con- 

 sidered together as the last named is the cause of the other. 

 Their origin probably lies in the fact that vines growing in strong 

 black land, that which is commonly found in hollows and which 

 is frequently called black walnut land, are particularly apt to shell, 

 while vines growing on higher land hold their fruit. I have seen 

 in the vineyards of Mr. E. H. Fay, Brocton, N. Y. , rows which be- 

 gan to shell as soon as they dipped into this dark, loamy soil, yet just 

 above no grapes fell. The land is undoubtedly rich, but is it rich 



