107 



There is but a short time in spring, just before the buds 

 unfold, when a vine will bleed. There is little or no movement 

 of the sap in winter, nor when the ground is frozen ; and, as 

 soon as growth commences, the sap is absorbed and evaporated 

 through the leaf in large quantities. Why, then, choose the 

 spring, the worst time in the whole year, for pruning? There 

 is no objection, however, to pruning at transplanting, as the 

 roots having been cut or broken in digging, there is not a suffi- 

 cient flow of sap to result in bleeding. Severe pruning during 

 the growing season will give the vine a shock from which it will 

 take a long time to recover, but the pinching in of laterals and 

 the ends of canes, to check a too rampant growth, is always in 

 order. 



MANURE FOR THE VINE. 



Some extensive grape-growers have contended in the past 

 that vines require little or no manure ; that land in good con- 

 dition for any of the hoed crops is quite rich enough to insure 

 the best results. They outgrow this notion after a few years' 

 experience. The removal of a large growth of wood at the an- 

 nual pruning, with a crop of fruit in addition, will exhaust the 

 fertility of the soil as rapidly as most other crops. While this 

 is true, caution should be exercised in the use of unfermented 

 nitrogenous manures. The tendency of all such applications 

 would be to cause an excessive and late growth of wood, 

 entirely unfit to endure the extreme temperature of our winters. 

 Fine old compost, say half muck, is much to be preferred. 

 Rather coarse ground bone, mixed with wood ashes or commer- 

 cial potash, will give good results on most soils. Such a mixture 

 contains very little nitrogen, while the percentage of phosphoric 

 acid, potash, and lime is large. It seems to meet the wants of 

 the vine perfectly. An application, once in two or three years, 

 of three hundred pounds of bone, one hundred pounds of pot- 

 ash, or fifty bushels of wood ashes to the acre, will be sufficient 

 to maintain the vines in a thriving, healthy growth, and, other 

 conditions being favorable, insure an annual yield of the best 

 fruit. The bone and ashes should be mixed and moistened some 

 weeks before using. This may be done on the stable floor, 

 where it can remain till the odor arising from the mass indicates 



