46 THE FRUIT-TREE AND SHRUB PRUNER. 



deposited there, and will also expose the wood to the 

 warm influences of the house. Every season the Vines 

 should be painted over with soft-soap and sulphur- 

 vivium of equal parts and well mixed, being put on 

 with a brush. 



Summer Pruning the Vine. 



Some good cultivators of the Grape adopt the plan of 



stopping the laterals at the joint at which the bunch 



of Grapes is situated, and some say stop it one joint 



above the bunch. The latter is no doubt the most 



reasonable. This should be done by snapping the 



young wood off at the joint, and not by cutting it with 



a knife, as is even now practised by some ignorant 



persons. The stage of growth at which this should be 



done is no doubt a matter of some importance. And in 



my opinion it should not be done till after the fruit is 



swelling off, as a check must arise from the sudden 



reduction of the young growth, which may deter the 



progressive development of the embryo fruit. After 



the fruit has reached a size to command a rapid and 



forcible draw upon the channels of the currency of the 



sap to itself, equal to the growth of the lateral on 



which the fruit exists, no check to the fruit will arise 



from the sudden stopping of the lateral. The bunch 



of fruit will get the immediate benefit, as the sap will 



be turned to it by such stopping, and the fruit being 



then in a stage capable of receiving the full complement 



of sap, no loss will arise ; but it will be found that if 



the lateral on which the bunch is situated is stopped 



too soon there will be a tendency to make wood at 



every point accessible to the sap, and the fruit will not 



swell so fast as it would have done if left till it was in 



a more advarced state before the stopping was done. 



All subsequent laterals must be duly stopped, and if 

 the Vine is very luxuriant two bunches may be allowed 

 on each with advantage to the Vine ; for it generally 

 happens with such Vines that when there is not an 

 equal consumption of the supply of sap by the fruit of 

 one bunch, the bursting of the eye will take place, 



