WEEKLY CALENDARIAL REGISTER. 125 



thus offer a supply of moisture, which the foliage and 

 fruit will quickly and most advantageously absorb. 



The whole strength of the vine will now be put in 

 requisition by the daily increasing size of the berries. 

 Pay great attention, therefore, to the thinning of them, 

 and use the scissors very freely. Remember, that ev- 

 ery berry cut out leaves its share of nourishment to be 

 divided amongst the remaining ones. Leave none but 

 the largest berries, and those as nearly as you can at 

 equal distances from each other on the bunches, bear- 

 ing in mind, that two of the characteristics of a fine 

 bunch of grapes, are large berries, of equal size. 



August 26th. Now, as the period of ripening hast- 

 ens on, the full benefit of the sun's rays will be of the 

 greatest advantage. Take care, therefore, that no 

 portion of the fruit be shaded by more than the con- 

 sistence of a single leaf. If, through inattention in 

 training the shoots, the leaves should be too crowded 

 in any part, the former must be loosened from the wall, 

 and re-nailed at a proper distance from each other, as 

 the leaves must not on any account be pulled off. 

 Stripping off the leaves, for the purpose of exposing 

 the fruit to the direct rays of the sun, under the mista- 

 ken notion that it will thereby ripen earlier, is a prac- 

 tice that cannot be too strongly condemned. The 

 value of the leaves in protecting the fruit has already 

 been pointed out, it is only necessary, therefore, further 

 to remark, that, as the greater portion of the secretions 

 of the plant is prepared in the leaves, every leaf that 

 is pulled off, not only greatly injures the vegetation of 

 the vine ; but the bud at the base of the footstalk of the 

 leaf, by being deprived of its principal source of nour- 

 ishment, is crippled in its growth, and otherwise seri- 

 ously injured in its vitality. Moreover, if a leaf that 

 is growing near to, and on the same shoot as a bunch 

 of fruit, be pulled off, the ripening of the latter will not 



