THE RINGING OF GRAPES 289 



berries were also soft and did not bear carriage well, and 

 as a result nothing was gained in price from their earli- 

 ness. There was no opportunity to institute a comparison 

 of quality September 20, as at that time those not girdled 

 were sour and unpalatable. The girdled ones seemed to 

 the anxious waiter to be nearly perfect, but in five^or six 

 days the not -quite -ripe ungirdled ones were preferred, and 

 October 1, when the latter had arrived at perfection, the 

 former were left uneaten. These girdled grapes were com- 

 paratively flat, insipid and unsatisfying. They were quite 

 as sweet to the taste as the others but lacked their refresh- 

 ing sparkle, partly from seeming to be less acid and partly 

 from suggestive, incipient decay. This was the case whether 

 they had been housed September 20 or left on the vines 

 until October 1. 



"These results were unsatisfactory. I repeated the experi- 

 ment, using for the purpose the same vines and adding to 

 their number. In this I was largely influenced by the con- 

 sideration that if we should have a dryer September, the 

 objectionable features mentioned would be reduced to a 

 minimum. 



"In 1890 I girdled, in all, vines covering nearly an acre. 

 They were all Concords, trained on the renewal system, 

 each vine having two bearing arms six feet long. These 

 arms are fruited but once, and replaced every year by new 

 canes grown for the purpose, upon which no fruit is al- 

 lowed while growing. Half the vines, those in alternate 

 rows, had only one arm girdled. The others were girdled 

 on both arms, which comprised all of the bearing wood 

 except two, three or four central canes that sprung from 

 the trunk bolow the arms. The operation was performed 

 July 18 and 19. The girdled grapes showed color August 

 17, the ungirdled August 25. Those girdled were first sent 

 to market September 22, and the others October 3. Sep- 

 tember 22 specimens of each were sent to Dr. C. A. Goess- 

 mann, of the Agricultural College at Amherst, Massachu- 



