66 THE BOOK OF THE GRAPE 



points and shoulders generally as they extend in growth, 

 otherwise the increased weight of the extremities of the 

 bunch will cause them to assume a perpendicular position, 

 and to cut at the point of contact with the ties. 



With regard to Gros Maroc and Gros Colmar, a space 

 of rather more than an inch (one and a half inches will be 

 none too much) from berry to berry should be allowed 

 in thinning ; and, in thinning bunches of Buckland 

 Sweetwater and Gros Guillaume, all that is necessary in 

 a general way is to cut out all the small berries, as these, 

 being furnished with long foot-stalks, will have ample 

 room to swell out to proper dimensions. Grape-thin- 

 ning, it may here be remarked, is an interesting pas- 

 time for ladies. Indeed, school children are employed 

 to perform the work under the tuition of experts, and 

 in some large grape-growing districts on the confines of 

 Essex, Herts and Middlesex, gangs of women experts 

 do the thinning in a highly satisfactory manner. As soon 

 as the grapes have been thinned in one vineyard (consist- 

 ing of from six to one hundred large houses) the women 

 experts move on to another vineyard (of which there are 

 several hundred) in the neighbourhood, where many 

 quick hands, guided by keen eyes, and a thorough know- 

 ledge of the work, including the size to which certain 

 varieties of the grape attain when properly thinned, per- 

 form their work in an expeditious and highly satis- 

 factory manner, and once more take their departure for 

 another vineyard, and so on, until the grape-thinning 

 harvest is over. 



WATERING THE VINE BORDERS 



If the best results are to be obtained in the way of 

 handsome, solid bunches, consisting of large, well coloured 

 berries, copious waterings of diluted liquid manure at a 

 temperature of from seventy-five to ninety degrees 



