298 



friends, and the market, with grapes. But, to 

 forward their maturity and size, the following 



But, to promote and 

 course may 

 be pursued : 



The first of July you will be able to see the state of your 

 fruit, which will be just formed. At this time select the 

 highest fruit branches, and those which have the finest 

 appearance of fruit upon them, and perform the following 

 operation on the two years' old wood, from which these 

 branches proceed, taking care not to cut below any of the 

 wood branches. 



Take a pruning knife with a smooth edge and hawk's 

 bill, and pass it round the branch where the bark is clear 

 from knots, cutting deep enough to reach the sap-wood of 

 the plant; at a quarter or three eighths of an inch below 

 the first cut make another, running parallel with the first ; 

 then make a perpendicular cut through this section of the 

 bark the same depth, and you may take out the ring of 

 bark clear from the branch. This will not prevent the sap 

 rising into the upper part of the branch, but it will prevent 

 Ats descending below this cut, by which means it will be 

 yetained in, and distributed throughout, the upper part of the 

 branch, in a greater portion than it could otherwise be, and 

 the branches and fruit will both increase in size much more 

 than any of those that are not thus treated, and the matu- 

 rity of the fruit will be advanced very much. 



This has been denominated girdling. If the plant is 

 very vigorous and the season very favourable, the wound 

 * r ill soon be closed, so that it may be necessary to open it 

 a second time. This process does not injure the plant, as 

 you only girdle the fruit-bearing branches, which you would 

 in any case cut out at the fall pruning, to make room for 

 the branches which you have been bringing forward to give 

 you fruit the succeeding year. This may be kept up from 

 year to year, and give you a succession of ripe fruit from 

 the first of September to the close of the season. The 

 fruit on those branches which are not girdled will ripen the 

 latest, of course, but neither these, nor those which have 

 been girdled, should be shortened, as is customary on vines 

 not thus treated. 



By this practice, which was first suggested in the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society of London a few vears 

 since, and first brought into use in this country with success 

 by the corresponding secretary of the Mass. Agr. Soc. I have 

 raised grapes in the open air this year, the bunches of which 

 weighed from eight to twenty-eight ounces , and the her- 



