364 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



It may be pertinently asked why the ring-cntting- i;> persisted in_ 

 considering its baneful results to plant and produce ; but the ansAver 

 is that when the system has been once adopted it can no longer be 

 abandoned, without total loss of crop for some years, and this no- 

 grower in the countiy can afford. It must also be observed that the- 

 weight ])roduced per acre by ring-cutting is almost double that 

 of unriug-cut plants, and this is a compensating advantage which no 

 doubt accounts for the fact that even new plantations are subjected to 

 ring-cutting. Some growers have informed me that cuttings and slips 

 have acqun^pd a hereditary liking to ring-cutting, and that it is 

 doubtful if they would produce without it ; but I do not credit this. 

 The ring-cutting is done in this country a few days after the fruit has- 

 set, and mostly on the mnin stem — in some districts it is done on each 

 minor stem, and this, it is said, is less detrimental to the plant. The 

 Peronospora malady * which did such wholesale damage to the- 

 currant crop in 1900, is now successfully combated, by spraying the 

 vines with a solution, H to 2 per cent, of sulphate of copper, 1 

 per cent, slaked lime and water.f 



* The Downy Mildew (Plasinopara viticola), one of the most serious vine diseases, probably not 

 existent in Australia, since specimens have never come under the observation of the Patholofjist's Branch, 

 — [Ed. Journal.'\ 



t A form of Bordeaux Mixture.— fPin. Journal] 



