150 GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



vines originating from the last year's spurs are left to bear grapes 

 this year, and so on alternately from year to year. This mode 

 of pruning will insure a large crop every year, and will not ex- 

 haust the vine. 



[The above paragraph will stand true in several wine-growing 

 countries in Europe, especially on the Rhine and in some parts of 

 Hungary ; but in California, the vines pruned three or four feet 

 long will bear so enormously that the wine will prove inferior ; 

 and if the vine bears the blue grape it will hardly become blue, 

 but remains a pale pink, and will not give proper color to red 

 wine.] 



Summer Pruning. — The native Californians never used to prune 

 vines in the summer, but let them grow any length they pleased. 

 This is erroneous. Every person, on reflection, can at once see 

 that the sap required to grow and produce vines ten, and often 

 twenty feet long, may be better used if it is forced into the grapes. 

 Undoubtedly the berries and bunches will be larger if moderate- 

 ly trimmed ; besides, this trimming is a great advantage when the 

 grapes are gathered, as the picking is so much easier than in an 

 untrimmed vineyard, where every thing is tangled up. The best 

 mode is to cut the tops of the vines to the height of five or six 

 feet from the ground, in the month of July for the first time, and 

 the second time in the middle of August. This operation is done 

 easily, and pretty quick. One man with a sickle tops off about 

 two thousand five hundred a day. Besides the above-named ad- 

 vantages, there is one more, viz., when the top is cut off, every 

 where small vines will spring out and form a dense leaf on the 

 ends of the vines, keeping the grapes growing underneath in a 

 moderate shade, and making them thus more tender, juicy, and 

 sweet. It is therefore a great mistake, practiced often by new 

 comers from modern Europe, that they will break out the so-call 

 ed suckers ; that is, little branches starting out behind the leaf, 

 and growing feebly up to the length of a few inches. These, in 

 the northern parts of Europe, are broken up, but not in Italy 

 Greece, Smyrna, etc. Now California having a warmer climate 

 the vines need more protection against the sun than elsewhere 

 and experience shows that where some bunches of grajoes are ex 

 posed, without the shelter of their leaves, to the rays of the sun 

 the berries remain small, green, hard, and sour. 



Crushing. — "When the picked grapes are brought to the press 

 house, they ought to be crushed immediately, and not left stand 



