110 WEEKLY CALENDARIAL REGISTER. 



as easy as possible, it is not enough that the bunches 

 be reduced in number, so as to bring the whole crop 

 within a given weight, but it is also equally necessary 

 that the number of berries should be lessened; by 

 which operation, not only is great relief given to the 

 vital powers of the vine during the maturation of the 

 fruit, but the value of the crop becomes thereby 

 doubled, and in many instances quadrupled, in conse- 

 quence of the extraordinary increase in the size and 

 flavor of the berries. 



August 5th. If the weather be hot and dry, sup- 

 ply tlie border with liquid manure. To prevent this 

 from being, to any extent, lost by evaporation, draw 

 drills about eighteen inches or two feet apart, and a 

 couple of inches deep; and along these pour the ma- 

 nure, holding the spout of the watering-pot, with the 

 nose taken off, close to the bottom of them, that the 

 liquid may not wash the earth into a cream-like con- 

 sistence, in which case it would cake together, and 

 intercept the rays of the sun in passing through the 

 surface to the roots. When sufficient has been pour- 

 ed into one drill, rake the earth over it, and proceed 

 in like manner till the whole border be manured. 

 This operation, which should be done in the latter 

 part of the day as soon as the sun has ceased shining 

 on the border, may, if the state of the weather require 

 it, be repeated every two or three days, from the time 

 the fruit is first set until it becomes ripe, and it will 

 be found very beneficial in promoting the swelling of 

 the berries. 



12th. As the berries are now rapidly increasing in 

 size, the thinning of them must be attended to every 

 seven days, and if oftener, the better. This is ren- 

 dered necessary, in consequence of the unequal man- 

 ner in which they sometimes swell. If the berries on 

 any given bunch be thinned, so that the remaining 

 ones are all equal in size, it will generally be found, 

 on inspecting it five or six days afterwards, that many 

 of them have remained, in point of size, stationary; 

 while others have grown perhaps twice as large as 



