632 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



or starch, and acids, whicli were previously formed by the 

 roots, when they were necessary for the ilevelopment of 

 the stem, buds, leaves, and branches of the plant. 



" The organs of assimilation, at this period of their life, 

 reCL'ive more nourishment from the atmosphere than the 

 employ in their sustenance; and when the formation of 

 the woody substance has advanced to a certain extent, 

 the expenditure of the nutriment (the supply of which 

 still remains the same ) takes a new direction, and blossoms 

 are produced. The functions of the leaves of most plants 

 cease upon the ripening of their fruit because the pro- 

 ducts of their action are no longer needed. They now 

 yield to the chemical influence of the oxygen of the air, 

 generally suffer a change in color, and fall off."* 



It is quite unnecessary to adduce further testimony to 

 prove the importance of the leaf in the vital economy of 

 the plaut. I shall, therefore, conclude with the following 

 practical observations of Sir W. Macarthur, in the rough 

 notes or comments upon the Geelong Prize Essays : — 



"Dr. Lindley has wittily observed, that he who should 

 remove from a plant in full bearing a portion of its leaves, 

 with the view of hasteuing the maturity of its fruit, would 

 be actiug with about as much reason as one who should 

 take out part of the lungs and bowels of an animal, by 

 way of improving its digestion. 



"Let us endeavour to add a few maxims and general 

 principles. 



" When the summer is sufficiently warm and prolonged 

 to ensure the perfect maturity of the fruit, the more 

 healthy leaves the vine is enabled to develop and preserve, 

 thf greater the crop it is capable of bringing to perfection. 



" A shoot, while its leaves are in a state of growth, acts 

 as a drain upon the resources the plaut derives directly 

 from the soil ; but each leaf, having once attained its full 

 size, serves as an organ to elaborate the juices, and absorb 

 moisture during the night and in damp weather, by means 

 of its stomata, or mouths placed ou the under side: it 

 will also, by the same means, absorb nutritive principles 

 from the atmosphere. 



"The prolonged health and vigour of any particular leaf 

 has important influence upon the bud at its axil; laterals 

 may also serve to feed the bud close to which they spring, 

 but, if vigorous, they must interfere mth its development. 

 In such cases, if the buds be required to be retained at 

 the next pruning, the laterals in connection with them 

 shonld be shortened or removed. 



"The leaves situated near the base of bearing shoots have 

 a much more important influence in the nourishment and 

 ripening of the fruit than those situated towards the 

 extremity. The former, as every one knows, is placed in 

 almost immediate relation to the bunches. 



" Leaves to any considerable extent deprived of the action 

 of light and air, cannot continue to perform healthy 

 functions. The more light they have the better. 



" .Although, therefore, in climates most favourable to the 

 vine, it should be encouraged to develope largely its summer 

 growth, this object should not be pursued io the injury 

 of the more important leaves close to the fruit, which 

 also have the otfice of feeding the buds which, for the 

 most part, are to produce next year's crop of fruit. 



" To remove, or shorten, to any considerable extent, 

 the shoots of i;he vine, after the leaves are fully grown, 

 may have become advisable, but only in consequence of 

 previous injudicious treatment. They ought to have been 

 removed or shortened at an earlier period of growth. So 

 also with leaves which it may have become advisable to 

 rcinnve that the fruit may be exposed to more light; the 

 vibe should not have been permitted to grow in such form 

 as to render this requisite. But to stop or pinch off the 

 ends of growing shoots which are showing fruit, is dif- 

 ferent, and often beneficial. It may, however, be adopted 

 to an extent which will do great injury to the vine. The 

 lu'st effect of early stopping, say, at a joint or to above 

 the uppermost bunch upon a shoot, is to cause a portion 

 of the vigour, which would have been employed in its 

 rapid extension, to be diverted to the development of the 

 bunch and the leaves which are retained. By the same 

 process the laterals which usually are produced upon healthy 

 shoots, are forced out prematurely. 



"If the fresh shoots, which will soon take the place of 

 the original leader, be again removed, or closely pinched 



* Balfour's Manual of Botany. 



back, the bunches of fruit will no doubt be stili further 

 forced forward ; and this system may be the best where, 

 as in forcing houses, a wholly artificial state, as well as 

 at roots as of the atmosphere in which the grow, is adopted. 

 In such cases the smaller number of immensely developed 

 leaves is made to do the duty of the greater number 

 which would naturally be produced, and which: under glass, 

 could not be sufficiently exposed to light and air to per- 

 form their functions properly. But, in a climate such as 

 we for the most part have to deal with,- such a system 

 will tend to the ultimate injury of the vines. As the 

 shoots are permitted to extend, so also will the roots, 

 penetrating every favouring crevice and vein in the successive 

 strata uuderneath to an unsuspected depth, thus placing 

 at command stores of moisture and other elements of 

 growth to be called into requisition when the parching 

 heats of summer render them necessary. Vines which, on 

 the contrary, have been restrained to a mutilated summer 

 growth, with its few attended leaves, will not have a com- 

 paratively extensive system of roots. Can it be supposed 

 that they will be able in the same degree to support the 

 effect of a dry summer, or to bring to maturity such 

 heavy crops as those which we will assume to be trained 

 so as to have ample and luxuriant growth? We will imagine 

 these last to be managed so as to form walls or banks of 

 rich foUage five or seven feet high — nowhere so crowded 

 as ro deprive the interior and lower leaves of healthy 

 colour and action, and after the young growth has filled 

 up the area allotted to it, that the first growing young 

 shoots are brushed off with the knife or hooks as often 

 as requisite until the increasing drain of the swelling bunches 

 of fruit becomes sufficient to retain within reasonable 

 bounds their tendency to grow. In such condition, I 

 venture to assert, a plot of vines would be far more 

 favourably circumstanced to produce larger crops of per- 

 fectly matured fruit, uninjured by the vicissitude of the 

 seasons, than they can be when cramped in their growth 

 by prepetual close stopping. Let not the inexperienced 

 husbandman, however, suppose that because the system of 

 close stopping (expedient under glass where the atmosphere 

 is often so damp as to promote the formation of young 

 roots all over the stem and old branches of the vines) is 

 condemned as unsuitable to the requirements of a hot, and 

 often dry and arid climate, that stopping, under all cir- 

 cumstances, is injurious — quite the reverse — but let it be 

 done with judgment, and never so as to prevent the vines 

 from reaping the advantages of ample and extended 

 summer growth. In the early growth, where the tap is 

 forcing the rapid extension of the shoots, it is often 

 advisable by stopping them to check their over-rapid 

 extension ; but, beware how you bring them into an over- 

 crowded state — thin out sufficiently and in time to afford 

 to each important shoot its necessary share of light, and 

 by no means continue to shorten them, or prevent the 

 formation of ample foliage. If the luxuriant state of your 

 vines should have induced you at the winter pruning to 

 leave long rods of bearing wood (which is often advisable 

 to reduce over vigour), then you will probably find it 

 necessary, besides thinning out the young shoots from 

 them to prevent overcrowding, to keep almost all the rods 

 closely stopped a joint or two above the uppermost bunches. 

 This will not interfere with the development of foliage 

 recommended, which should be ample as is consistent 

 with the healthy action of the important under leaves." 



TEA IN INDIA. 



It is almost impossible to take up a paper of any 

 circulation in Bengal without finding something about tea 

 in its columns. The f:ict is that tea cultivation is carried 

 on in this country by such a large number of small, and 

 a few large companies, that a very large proportion of 

 the Europeans have some interest in it, and so like to be 

 kept imformed as to what is going on. Tea manufacture, 

 like most other agricultural and horticultural work depends, 

 first of all, for its success, on the weather, for without 

 favourable weather fiist class tea cannot be made. To 

 judge, however, by wh;it we read in the papers, the-causes 

 which operate against making a profit out- of a tea gar- 

 den are so numerous that the only wonder is anybody 

 ever makes any profit at all. These are questions, how- 



