AND WIiq^E MAKING. 



93 



gentle checking, and leading the sap into other channels, 

 not the violent process which is often followed long after 

 the bloom, when the shoots have so hardened that the 

 knife must be used, and by which the plant is robbed 

 of a large part of its leaves, to the injury of both fruit 

 and vine. Let any one who wishes to satisfy himself, 

 summer-prune a vine accordmg to this method, and leave 

 the next vine until after the bloom ; he will soon be con- 

 vinced which is best. Since I first practised this method, 

 now about twenty years, it has added at least one-third 

 to the quantity and quality of my crop, and it is now fol- 

 lowed by most of the intelligent growers of my State. 

 It also gives an early opportunity to destroy the small 

 worms, a species of leaf-folder, which are very trouble- 

 some about this time, eating the young bunches and 

 leaves, and which generally 

 make their web among the 

 tender leaves at the end of the 

 shoot. The bearing shoots all 

 being pinched back, we can 

 leave the vines alone until after 

 the bloom, only tying up the 

 young canes from the spurs, 

 should this become necessary. 

 Do not tie them over and 

 among the bearing canes, but 

 lead them to the empty spaces 

 m the middle, as our ob- 

 ject must be to give the fruit 

 all the air and light we can. 



When they have bloomed, the laterals will have start- 

 ed from the axils of the leaves on the bearing shoots. 

 Go over again, and pinch these back to one leaf, as shown 

 in figure 21, the cross lines showing where the laterals are 

 to be pinched. This will have the tendency to develop 

 the remaining leaf very rapidl^y, enabling it to serve as a 



Fig. 21.— PINCHIKG THE 

 LATERAI.S. 



