OF THE VINE. 37 



a vine than the proportion represented in the scale, the 

 flavour will not thereby be increased, in which case the 

 vine will be undercropped. This, however, very sel- 

 dorn happens; but to go beyond the true bearing point, 

 and to overcrop a vine whenever the quantity of fruit 

 shown will admit of it, is of almost universal occur, 

 rence, not only with vines trained on open walls, but 

 with those under glass also. It is impossible to place 

 this injurious practice in too prominent a point of view, 

 for it is the prolific parent of almost every evil that 

 can befal a vine, and it is really so general, that 

 scarcely one vine in ten thousand escapes it. 



Although, therefore, the proportionate quantities 

 mentioned in the scale are much less than vines are 

 frequently permitted to bear, they may be regarded 

 as a close approximation to the greatest weight of 

 fruit which can be borne, so as to be brought to the 

 highest degree of maturation which the climate will 

 permit. There may be a little increase in the powers 

 of maturation of vines, when trained on very warm 

 aspects, but I have never found it prevail to any ex- 

 tent, nor to be sufficiently uniform in its occurrence, to 

 justify any variation in the proportions laid down in 

 the scale. Some sorts of vines, also, are constitution- 

 ally disposed to shew more fruit than other sorts, but 

 the capability to mature the fruit is pretty nearly equal 

 in all. It may be further remarked, that if a vine du- 

 ring any season be undercropped, the deficiency may 

 be partly made good the following year, by causing it 

 to bear a considerable portion of fruit more than its al- 

 lotted quantity, as stated in the scale. This results 

 from the sap not having been all expended in ripening 

 the fruit ; it has in consequence accumulated, and the 

 plant is thereby enabled to mature a greater weight of 

 fruit in the ensuing season, that it otherwise could do, 

 from the -ap generated in the current year. 



