4o Grape Culture. 



If young vines are making gross wood, they are also making 

 gross roots, which perish during the winter. I am not a believer 

 in lifting and relaying vine roots into new compost unless they 

 are well supplied with fibry roots ; otherwise I never saw good 

 results, as long, bare roots of vines are no use to lay into new 

 borders. If this is practised these roots perish. It is much 

 better to make your trench and prune as already advised and 

 explained in last chapter. These young vines will be sure to 

 send out numerous fibry roots when the vine comes into action. 

 I have cut the roots of young vines three feet from the rods 

 three years after planting, and also cut the roots off vines six 

 feet from the stem twenty years planted. Successful practice 

 has thus convinced me that both old and young vines can be 

 greatly improved by root-pruning, renewing the borders in 

 the way described in the preceding pages. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



DISEASES AND INSECT PESTS. 

 SHANKING. 



OF all diseases Shanking is the worst that the grape cultivator 

 has to contend with. As to how shanking is caused is a difficult 

 question to answer. The first signs are noticed just when the 

 berries commence to change colour, and all that the eye can 

 detect is just a black streak and a black thread round the stem 

 of the berries. The growth of the berries is then arrested, and 

 they shrivel and become sour. Sometimes a few berries only 

 will be affected, and at other times the whole house will be 

 attacked. 



