SELECTING AND THINNING BUNCHES 65 



Three or four seven-pound bunches of Trebbiano are 

 ample for one vine if its permanent vigour is considered, 

 as it should be. One twelve-pound bunch of Gros 

 Guillaume and two or three smaller bunches should 

 be allowed for a crop in preference to leaving two 

 large bunches. Trebbiano and Gros Guillaume are 

 both extra strong growing vines, and on this account 

 may safely be allowed to carry a greater weight of 

 grapes for a crop than would be prudent to take from 

 other varieties of the grape-vine. In a general way, ten 

 or fourteen bunches of Lady Downe's, Appley Towers, 

 Mrs Pearson, and Diamond Jubilee, weighing from one 

 and a half to two and a half pounds (fourteen of 

 the former and ten of the latter weight) each, may be 

 left on each vine of the length indicated for a crop. 

 Superfluous bunches should be removed as soon as the 

 best bunches can safely be determined, and the berries 

 ought to be thinned on those retained for a crop as early 

 as possible after they have set, so as not unnecessarily to 

 waste the forces of the vines, as is the case when the 

 grapes are allowed to become as large as green peas before 

 being thinned. The berries should be thinned out to 

 one inch from berry to berry as soon as possible after they 

 are set, retaining the crown or central berries, and being 

 careful not to rub the bunches in any way, or to injure 

 the berries with the scissors. In addition to a sharp- 

 pointed pair of scissors, those engaged in the work of 

 thinning should have a small forked birch, or other 

 description of twig, for raising the shoulders of the 

 bunches in the process of thinning. Loose shoulders 

 are best cut off, as single-stemmed bunches are 

 preferable. 



Large bunches of Gros Guillaume and Trebbiano 

 should have the shoulders tied neatly and carefully out, 

 suspending the points with a series of ties from the 

 trellis, care being taken to give additional support to the 



