232 Notes and Gleanings. 



any sudden demand of the expanding fruit. This, however, can only be the case 

 where the roots are in a medium favorable to the formation and preservation of 

 the fibres and their points, or spongioles. Shanking, therefore, may not be the 

 effect of too great a difference between the temperature of the soil and atmos- 

 phere : but the conditions unfavorable to shanking are elevation, dryness, and 

 openness of the border, which are essential to the preservation of the fibres in 

 health until the crop is mature ; whilst the predisposing causes of the disease 

 are lowness, wetness, and closeness of the material of the border. In short, all 

 outside borders have a tendency to cause shanking ; for however dry they may 

 be rendered by drainage, and the materials of which they are formed, yet very 

 wet and cold weather when the fruit begins to color may so retard root-action as 

 to induce shanking through an insufficiency of sap, arising from inactivity of the 

 spongioles. 



A deficiency of sap may also result from the border being not only outside, 

 but also below, the level of the surrounding ground, and deep, rich, and imper- 

 fectly drained. This is generally the case when shanking is most severe. Than 

 roots situated deep beneath the surface, and in a manner shut out from all sun 

 and atmospheric influences, in conjunction with excessively rich soil, nothing 

 further is required, except a period of cold rainy weather when the grapes com- 

 mence ripening, to cause the speedy destruction of the fibres (never very plenti- 

 ful), rendering the supply of sap insufficient for the expansion of the fruit ; and, 

 as a consequence, the berries shank. Examine at what time we may the roots 

 of vines situated in a deep, rich, low, wet border, we shall find them little better 

 than so many bare sticks, with a few fibres at the ends, — in winter, almost en- 

 tirely rotten and dying back ; and what can we expect but that similar destruc- 

 tion of the fibres will take place in summer when the same conditions of cold- 

 ness and wet present themselves ? Too great a depth of soil, roots too deep, 

 soil wet, too rich, and cold in comparison with the temperature in which the 

 branches and fruit are situated, will destroy the fibres, and cause a deficiency in 

 the supply of sap ; owing to which, the footstalks of the berries, or parts of the 

 bunches, will become ulcerated. 



An insufficiency of sap may also result from depriving the vines of too much 

 foliage either in the current or the previous season. It is not unusual to keep 

 vineries warm and moist, with no great amount of air after the fruit has set, in 

 order to secure root-action. A great breadth of foliage is produced ; and when 

 the fruit begins to color, or a little before, a great part of the leaves is suddenly 

 removed under pretence of getting the fruit well colored ; and thus, the foliage 

 not being in proportion to the fruit and to the root, it cannot assimilate the ex- 

 traordinary amount of sap driven into it : hence the roots are rendered inert, 

 and their destruction follows, either when the weather proves wet and cold, or a 

 good supply of water is given to help the second swelling. The roots are now 

 gone ; but more air is given, the evaporation from the leaves becomes exces- 

 sive, the roots do not supply sap fast enough for the swelling fruit, and shanking 

 of the footstalks of the berries and bunches follows. This is not so common a 

 cause of shanking as coldness, and wetness of the border ; but it does some- 

 times occur with vines planted in an inside border. 



