MAJSTAGEMENT OF FRUITING VINES. 117 



plants. The roots being excited into vigorous action 

 bj the enormous draft made upon them, find them- 

 selves suddenly without a channel through which 

 their unelaborated product can find vent ; the balance 

 of product and supply is upset and the fruit is filled 

 with crude, ill-digested sap, thus causing it to be 

 unripe and ill-flavored. But by early stopping the 

 shoots, and thus preventing the further production of 

 leaves and wood, we render summer pruning, that is, 

 the removal of superabundant leaves and wood, unne- 

 cessary ; no sudden check is given to the vines, the sap 

 is fully elaborated as fast as it is supplied, and the 

 fruit receiving an extra supply of properly prepared 

 sap (which would otherwise have gone to the produc- 

 tion of wood and leaves) is enlarged in size and 

 improved in flavor. 



That the leaves are the great agents in the elabora- 

 tion of sap, was fully proved by the experiments of 

 Hales, who forced orange flower-water into the vessels 

 of a vine, with a view to impart its flavor to the fruit. 

 The experiment was unsuccessful as to its ostensi- 

 ble object, but not as to its concomitant results; for he 

 traced the flavor through the stem and branches to 

 the leaves, but no further ; there it was decomposed, 

 and doubtless returned to the wood aiid fruit in the 

 form of sap. 



In a few weeks, or perhaps days, after being 



