134 TREATISE ON THE 



Each principal branch should be supported by 

 a prop or stake, as from the wind, or even its 

 own weight, it will be exposed to be broken off 

 from the main stock. Early in the ensuing 

 spring, before the flow of the sap, the vine should 

 be pruned, as great injury to the plant will result 

 4 from a loss of this precious fluid, where the work 

 of pruning is postponed too late in the season.* 

 The vinegrounds should be carefully prepared 

 with the plough or spade, early in the season, 

 before the buds begin to enlarge or swell, the vine 

 securely attached by a ligature of straw or mat- 

 ting to the support or stake, the matting, if to 

 be procured, is not liable to contraction and ex- 

 pansion from change of temperature, or the al- 

 terations of dry and, moist weather, from which 

 an injury is sometimes inflicted on the tender 

 branches as they expand, preventing the free 

 circulation of the sap, and not unfrequently so 

 pinching them as to cut through the young skin 

 or bark of the plant.t As soon as the shoots 



work should be completely finished about the middle of Febru- 

 ary, in order that the wounded part of the vine may have time 

 to allow the sap vessels to close before the circulation shall be 

 active. TRAMS. 



* In the vineyards of the Rhine, the vines are in the autumn 

 entirely buried to the depth of eighteen inches, or thereabout, 

 and the appearance of a vineyard is that of a ploughed field. 



.TRAiNSLATOR. 



t Wisps of straw are used for this purpose where the- mat- 

 ting cannot be obtained, though, should the season be rainy, 

 decay will take place, and cause a fermentation that may act 

 unfavourably on the young branches ; moreover, in our country, 

 straw furnishes a harbour for insects, where the egg is deposit- 

 ed, and the young brood hatched, which feed on the fluid, and 

 thus rob the vine of its vital principle and most active support. 



TRANSLATOR. 



